Tokyo Rose
by MrThreeCats
Summary: Ten years have passed since Rokkaku Gouji resigned as mayor of Tokyo. Since then, the members of the GGs have slowly drifted apart. Corn has long moved on from his Rudie days, but once he hears of the planned demolition of his old hideout, he seeks out what became of his old friends and asks for their help to stop it. They've all got problems of their own though, especially Beat...
1. Roots

_This fanfiction is a stand-alone sequel to my previous JSRF fanfiction, Architects of the Rebellion. No original characters appear, but most existing characters have been given proper first names for the purposes of realism._

 _I hope you enjoy reading Tokyo Rose. All comments are appreciated._

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – Roots**

Corn boarded the crowded subway train with his laptop bag firmly pressed against his chest. He rushed to sit down with his bag on his lap before the train took off towards its next stop. After adjusting his glasses, he stared out the window across from him as the city buildings blurred against the evening sky.

His commute to and from work gave him some time to stop and think about things, and the topic he most often reflected on was his life. He rather enjoyed his job: it paid well and it was something that he generally enjoyed doing. Still, the daily grind gradually wore down on him over the course of each week. Even though he'd been employed for a few years now, it was something that he hadn't completely gotten used to. Sometimes he wished that he had no commitments to attend to and could just spend his days at leisure like he used to, but that wasn't possible now that he was an adult. No, those days were long gone—perhaps for the better.

It had been ten years since Rokkaku Gouji, Tokyo's controversial former mayor, stepped down. During his tenure, the city's economy and freedoms slowly eroded due to his corrupt and tyrannical practices. Tokyo's status had steadily improved over the years since his resignation, but progress was much slower than most people had hoped. It didn't bother Corn as much as it used to though, now that he had a well-paying job and comfortable life.

 _Corn…_

Now _that_ was a name he hadn't gone by in years, not since his old inline skating street gang, the GGs, disbanded just a year after Gouji's resignation. Corn was the nickname he went by back when the gang was still together. The memory of it suddenly came back to him. The gang separated so gradually that nobody noticed it was happening until it was too late. One by one, members pursued their own independence until it was suddenly just a gang of two—the same members that it had begun with. Once it shrunk to that point, both members knew that it was time to put an end to the gang. A few years later though, those same two members began a different kind of union.

The GGs weren't the only inline skating gang on the streets of Tokyo back then. Those troublemaking gangs were all called Rudies by the people of Tokyo, likely due to the spraying of graffiti over public property being one of their favourite hobbies. Rudie gangs began to spring up as acts of defiance against Rokkaku Gouji's terrible governance a few years after he first took power, and due to their combined efforts were able to force him to resign and disappear from the political world. Ever since then, Rudies slowly disappeared from the streets. Perhaps they felt that acts of defiance were no longer necessary with a much improved government, or maybe they had simply gotten older and no longer cared about the Rudie lifestyle.

Over the years since the GGs' disbandment, Corn lost touch with most of his old friends. He didn't know why he let it happened, especially in the age of social media when keeping in touch was as easy as sending a friend request. Sometimes he'd wonder if it were too late to reconnect with his old friends. How many of them had moved on and no longer wanted anything to do with him? How many of them would let out an annoyed groan upon seeing his name show up in their social media notifications? Come to think of it, how many of them even _knew_ his real name?

Making friends wasn't an easy task for Corn anymore. Despite knowing many people with similar interests as him at his workplace—one of them a former member of the GGs—he never hung out with any of them outside of work hours. Back when he was the leader of the GGs he'd welcome new members with open arms, but the years he spent studying in university made him more introverted. Now, despite knowing people at work who he'd gotten along well with, he was too shy to take the next step and attempt a proper friendship with them. It was likely his lack of friends that was causing him to have a bored attitude towards his life. There was only one person who he could call a close friend of his, and although he always enjoyed their company, for him they weren't enough. He hoped that one day he'd find the courage to either reconnect with his old friends or get closer to his colleagues at work.

A woman's voice came over the train's intercom and snapped Corn out of his daydreaming.

"Next stop, Shibuya Station."

Corn pulled his phone out of his pocket to quickly glance at the local news before the train arrived at his stop. He scrolled through a list of articles until he found one about the local government's plans for improving the city's infrastructure. He immediately recalled hearing years ago of talks to demolish many old and unused buildings, including the abandoned hotel and courtyard—colloquially known as the Garage—that he and the GGs all lived in. Thankfully, nothing came of those plans the last he had heard of them. He'd hoped that they were scrapped, but he didn't know for sure. He was the one who discovered the forgotten hotel grounds and turned it into their home, and he'd hate to see it demolished.

Before he could read further into the article, he felt the train slowly come to a stop. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and stood up from his seat, his laptop bag strapped over his shoulder. Once the train doors opened, a flood of passengers exited through them. Corn stepped off the train and walked along the station platform. He was tired after his long day of work and couldn't wait to get home. Looking around at the other people in the station, he knew he wasn't the only one.

Someone caught Corn's eye as he walked along the platform. A man, looking to be around his age with short red hair and a thin beard, was sitting down alone on a bench with his eyes glued to his phone. A backpack laid on the ground next to him. Corn approached the man and paused to get a closer look at him.

 _Is that…_

"Beat?" Corn said aloud to the man sitting down.

The man looked up from his phone and at Corn. His eyes lit up in surprise once he recognized the man standing before him.

"Corn?" he exclaimed as he stood up from his seat. "Holy shit, dude! How've you been?"

Bright grins appeared on both of their faces as they reached out and firmly shook hands. Beat was one of Corn's closest friends and the third person to ever join the GGs. Despite that, even they drifted apart over the years. They were still immediately recognizable to each other though.

"I've been good," Corn answered. "Man, it's been so long!"

"I know. How is this the first time we've seen each other in years? We should've kept in touch."

"Yeah, I haven't kept in touch with most of the other GGs, either." Was it a coincidence that he had been thinking of his old friends mere moments before serendipitously crossing paths with one of them?

"Same," Beat replied. "I haven't seen most of them since the gang broke up. What have you been up to since then?"

"Well, I went to university and got a degree in computer science. After that, I got a job as a software developer."

Beat was impressed. "Damn. You making good money?"

Corn chuckled. "Yeah, you could say that. What about you?"

"You've accomplished a hell of a lot more than me, I'll tell you that right off the bat. You remember my girlfriend, Kat?"

"The Rapid 99 girl? Of course." Almost all Rudies went by nicknames instead of their real names, but Kat was one of the few that used her real name around those close to her. Once she and Beat began dating, the other GGs got to know her by her real name as well. "Is she still in a band?"

"Yeah, but two of her bandmates left to go to school so the band was missing a drummer and bass player. I learned to play drums and joined the band, and Riko learned to play bass on top of being the main vocalist. Oh, Riko is Cube's real name. You remember Cube, right?"

"Yeah." Cube and the members of Rapid 99 used to be a rock band before becoming Rudies, but Cube left the band to lead a Rudie gang called Poison Jam. After a nasty confrontation between the two that also involved the GGs, Cube left Poison Jam and eventually reunited with her former band. "How's the band doing, by the way?"

"Great. We're pretty popular in Tokyo's underground music scene. Our albums sell well and we've played at a few major clubs."

That explained why Corn hadn't kept up to date with their band: he never went clubbing. "It must be cool being in a band," he remarked.

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome," Beat said with a smirk. "I actually just came back from a meeting with our record label. That's why I'm taking the subway today. I usually bike around or get Riko to drive me somewhere. We all live over in Chuo."

"Oh, really? I take the subway all the time so I was wondering why today was the first time I've seen you here. I live just a few blocks from this station. I actually walk home from here."

"Must be an easy commute then."

"Easy but boring."

Beat looked up at the clock hanging in the station. "Hey, my train's gonna be here soon. We should totally hang out sometime this week though, whenever we're both free."

"Yeah, that'd be great," Corn replied. "What's your number?"

They both pulled out their phones and exchanged numbers. Beat put his phone away and grabbed his backpack off of the ground.

"Cool. I'll text ya later, then. See ya, Corn." Beat waved as he began walking away.

Corn suddenly realized how ridiculous his old nickname sounded. "Ugh, don't call me by that stupid nickname anymore. I don't know what I was thinking when I came up with it. My real name is Kon; call me that."

Beat turned back around. "Oh, yeah. I don't know why that completely slipped my mind. So your name's Kon? It's gonna be hard getting used to calling you that, so pardon me if I make a few mistakes."

"Why?" Kon asked him. "Because it's an uncommon name?"

"No, because I'm so used to calling you Corn!"

Kon chuckled. "True. It's gonna be hard to unlearn what we've known each other as for ten years."

"Exactly, but we might as well start now. My real name's Aaron."

Aaron and Kon both looked towards the subway tracks just as a train arrived and slowly crawled to a stop.

"That's my ride," Aaron said. "Later."

"See ya, Aaron."

They both waved goodbye to each other as Aaron walked towards and boarded the subway train. Kon stood and watched as the train departed the station. He couldn't believe it; he had just reunited with one of his closest friends from ten years ago. This was the miracle he needed to reinvigorate his mundane life.

Kon turned around and left the underground station. Once outside, the brisk autumn weather gave him a small chill. He zipped up his coat and began walking towards his home.

The roads were bustling with traffic as rush hour was in full swing. Kon kept to himself as he walked along the crowded sidewalks for a few blocks until he reached the more scenic side streets. The foot traffic was much calmer on those streets which allowed Kon to get lost in his thoughts again.

He took in the peacefulness of his surroundings. Despite being in the middle of the city, there was a decent amount of foliage from trees and potted plants along the road. The changing autumn weather turned many of the leaves on the trees a vibrant orange. Two kids, still in their school uniforms, were kicking a ball around to each other. It took him back to the stress-free days when he would spend all of his time relaxing and having fun—the days when he was a Rudie.

Although he had fond memories of those halcyon days, it had been ages since he last put on a pair of skates and even longer since he last visited the Garage. He was an adult now; he shouldn't be dwelling on the past. And yet, every once in a while, he found himself thinking about his young days as a Rudie. What was it that kept reminding him of his past? Perhaps it was the feeling that something was missing from his life—something that he once had.

Before he knew it, Kon had arrived at his house. He walked through the iron gate that greeted him to his home and closed it behind him. After that, he opened the front door and stepped inside, kicking off his shoes and placing his laptop bag on a table to his side. As he put his coat in the closet by the entrance, he shouted out to someone else in the house.

"Hey, you'll never guess who I met at the station earlier."

Kon heard the sound of footsteps coming from around the corner of the entryway. Just as he closed the closet door, Gum stepped out from around the corner with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Who?"

"Beat."

"Seriously?" she exclaimed with a surprised expression on her face. "Wow. How is he these days?"

"Pretty good," Kon replied as he stepped away from the house entrance. "You remember that Rapid 99 girl he was dating? They're still together and now he plays drums in their band."

Gum smiled. "That's cool. We should all get together one day and catch up."

"Yeah, we exchanged numbers so we can tell each other when we're both free to hang out. I didn't tell him that we're still together, but I'm sure he'd want to see you again, too. When's the best day for you this week?"

Gum took a sip of her coffee. "I should be done my drawing later today, so any time this week is good for me."

Gum was a freelance artist who worked on commission. Once in a while she would get commissions from companies asking her to do some professional graphic designs for them, but most of her clients were individuals paying her to draw private artwork for them. Without an actual art degree, she was unable to get a full-time job working as a graphic designer, but her hope was that with enough experience under her belt she'd be able to snag a job. As of yet though, she hadn't done any work for a high-profile company and thus lacked an impressive accomplishment to put on her resume.

A few years ago, she legally changed her first name to Gum. Unlike most Rudies who dropped their nicknames, she identified strongly with it and hated using her original name. Other than herself, Kon was the only person who knew her birth name, but he promised not to tell it to anyone else.

Kon pulled out his phone. "Cool, I'll text him." He began tapping out a message to Aaron.

"I'm just glad I'm almost done," Gum remarked. "I got a migraine today out of nowhere and it's killing me."

She walked into the living room where her workstation resided and sat down at her desk with her computer and drawing tablet. After another quick sip from her coffee, she placed the cup to the side and continued her drawing.

* * *

Aaron approached the apartment complex that he lived in. The building was three-storeys high, with multiple apartments on each floor and an outdoor staircase leading to the upper levels. He climbed the staircase up to the second floor with keys in hand and unlocked the door to his apartment. In the living room was Kat, laying on the couch and watching TV. She turned her head towards him and greeted him as he stepped inside.

"Hey, babe."

"Hey."

Kat looked almost the same as she did ten years ago. She no longer wore her hair in pigtails—now thinking that the look was too juvenile—but she still regularly dyed it teal. She would also act just as salaciously as she did back then, to the point of wearing racy outfits during concerts. Aaron didn't mind it though; in fact, he enjoyed seeing that side of her.

Aaron closed the door behind him and took off his shoes and backpack, placing them to the side of the entrance. He immediately walked into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water from the sink. Kat moved her feet off the couch as Aaron walked over and sat down next to her with glass in hand.

"Hey, do you remember Corn?" he asked her.

She paused to recall Corn's identity. "Oh, your old gang leader?"

Aaron placed his glass of water on the coffee table in front of the couch, next to a pack of cigarettes and lighter. "Yeah. I saw him earlier at Shibuya Station. We haven't seen each other in years so it was pretty wild meeting him there out of the blue. I didn't even know that his real name was Kon until he told me."

"Huh. How's he doing these days?"

"A lot better than me. He works at some software company and makes a ton of money. At least, that's what he hinted at. He probably didn't want to give me an exact number so I wouldn't get the urge to try mooching off of him."

Aaron felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the screen.

"Speak of the devil, he just texted me. He wants to know when's a good day for us to hang out. He's free every evening this week." Aaron looked at Kat. "You wanna come, too?"

Kat shrugged. "I dunno, wouldn't it be weird if I came?"

"Not really. You used to hang out with us all the time back when we were Rudies."

"Yeah, but things were different back then."

"How was it different? He was your friend, too. Don't you wanna see him again?"

Kat turned her head back towards the TV. "Not really."

Aaron pursed his lips but decided not to argue with her. "Suit yourself." He tapped out a response to Kon on his phone's screen, asking if tomorrow would be a good day for them to hang out. While doing so, he noticed that he entered Corn as his contact name instead of Kon. He wondered if he should correct it, but settled with keeping it the same for now. Once he sent the text, he placed his phone down on the coffee table.

"So," Kat began, "how was the meeting with the label?"

Beat scratched the back of his neck. "It wasn't too bad. They're really pressuring us for another album though."

"I figured they would. We'd better talk to Riko about it."

Aaron's phone vibrated. He picked it up and read the response from Kon to himself.

"Hey, you remember Gum?" he asked Kat. "She and him are still together."

Kat raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend. "You're surprised by that? _We're_ still together too, you know."

"Yeah, but things between them were… _weird_ for a while."

"What do you mean?"

Aaron regretted bringing it up. "Ah, forget about it. Anyway, we'll all be going out to eat tomorrow at around six. You sure you don't wanna come?"

Kat grabbed the pack of cigarettes and lighter off of the table. "Positive."

She stood up and walked out to the balcony, closing the screen door behind her. Aaron merely groaned and typed out a response back to Kon. After he hit send, he grabbed the TV remote off the couch and changed the channel, kicking his feet up on the table.


	2. After All These Years

**Chapter 2 – After All These Years**

Gum and Kon stepped inside a small restaurant. Aaron was nowhere to be seen, so they decided to sit down without him. A kind waitress directed them to a table at the far end of the restaurant and they both sat down next to each other.

"I've always wanted to try this place," Gum said. "I hear their sushi is really good."

"We're lucky there was a still a free table," Kon remarked. "I guess this place is less busy on weekdays."

The family-owned restaurant's interior was warm and inviting, its wood-paneled walls decorated with framed Japanese paintings. This was in stark contrast to it's hole-in-the-wall exterior; if you didn't walk down a dark and otherwise inconspicuous alleyway—just one of thousands scattered around the city—you'd never know it was there. Despite that, its location spread through word of mouth and it slowly became a popular destination among locals.

After a few more minutes passed without Aaron's arrival, Kon anxiously checked his watch. He and Gum had arrived at the restaurant at the agreed-upon time with no problems. They both began to wonder if Aaron was having trouble finding the place, but just as Kon pulled out his phone to check up on their old friend's whereabouts, someone opened the door to the restaurant and stepped inside. Kon looked up from his phone to see Aaron looking around the crowded restaurant and waved to get his attention. When Aaron spotted them, a huge grin appeared on his face and he excitedly walked over to their table. Gum stood from her seat and greeted him with a warm hug.

"Beat, it's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too. It's been too long."

Gum sat back down next to Kon as Aaron took the seat across from them at the table, his back facing the rest of the restaurant. Aaron was amazed by how much Gum hadn't changed over the years: she still had her youthful demeanour as apparent by her short blonde hair and vibrant smile.

"Did you have trouble finding the place?" Kon asked Aaron.

"A little bit. I did a circle around the block before I realized that I had to go inside the alleyway. I'm surprised this place is packed when it's so hard to find."

"I know," Gum concurred. "The food is supposed to be really good though."

"I hope so," Aaron replied. "I'm starving. By the way Gum, we should really reintroduce ourselves. It feels weird to call each other by our old nicknames. My actual name is Aaron."

"Oh, sorry about that," Gum replied abashedly

"It's fine. It's just that I haven't gone by the name Beat since back when we were Rudies, so it's a bit weird to be called it all of a sudden. So, what's your name?"

Gum forced a brittle smirk. "Well, this might be a bit weird but I actually legally changed my name to Gum."

"Really? Why?"

She shrugged while shuffling her feet underneath the table. "I just like it more than my birth name."

"Your birth name couldn't have been _that_ bad."

"It wasn't," Kon explained. "It's more about what her birth name represented: the life she had before she ran away from home and became a Rudie. She's called herself Gum ever since then, so it makes sense that she's more attached to that name."

Gum looked at Kon and nodded. "Yeah, exactly."

"Fair enough," Aaron replied.

The waitress came to their table and handed them menus. She then left to serve other tables while the group deliberated on what to order.

Aaron was impressed by the variety of dishes on the menu. "This place is a far cry from the fast food places we used to always eat at, huh?"

Kon joked, "Well, eventually you reach an age where you move on from just eating hamburgers and junk food."

"Don't forget all the pizzas we ordered," Gum added.

Aaron closed his menu, having decided what he wanted to order. "So Gum, what do you do for a living?" he asked her.

Gum put down her menu as well. "I'm a freelance artist."

"Putting your art skills to good use instead of towards vandalism, huh?"

Gum chuckled. "Yep. Basically, I take commissions from people or companies who want me to draw or design stuff for them."

"So it's not a full-time job?"

"No. I _want_ to be a professional graphic designer, but I haven't been able to snag a real job yet."

"How much money do you make off of your freelance work?"

"Not much. If it weren't for the money Kon makes, we'd probably be struggling to make ends meet. We can't even afford a car."

Aaron was a bit surprised. "Oh, I thought Kon was making good money."

"I am," he interjected. "We're not strapped for cash or anything; Gum's just exaggerating. I keep telling her that things are fine with the money we're making, but she won't stop talking about wanting to get a permanent job."

Gum glared at Kon. "I don't want a job just to make more money, I want one because art is my passion."

"Then you should be happy with your current gig! You'd rather be stuck designing generic advertisements for huge companies than creating the more personal artwork you're currently doing?"

Gum rolled her eyes. "Yeah, as if drawing silly doodles for random people on the internet is 'personal.'"

"Then draw whatever you want to draw! Why are you worried about getting paid? I already told you that I can support both of us."

"But I want people to actually _see_ my works! Part of the satisfaction of creating something is having other people enjoy what you created. I used to get more eyes looking at my artwork when I was spraying it onto the sides of buildings ten years ago!"

Just as their disagreement began to intensify, the waitress came back to their table to take their orders. They quickly calmed themselves and placed their orders: Gum ordered sushi with tea, Kon ordered a rice bowl, and Aaron ordered chicken gyoza and a beer. The waitress took back their menus and walked towards the kitchen.

Wanting to avoid a heated argument, Aaron immediately changed the subject before Gum and Kon could say another word.

"So," he began, "I noticed you both have rings on your fingers. When did you guys get married?"

Gum and Kon looked at each other and smiled warmly. The hostility they exhibited towards each other mere moments earlier had completely disappeared.

"About two years ago," Gum reminisced. "After Kon graduated university and landed his current job. The first paycheck he got, he spent it on my engagement ring."

"Thinking back on that, it was pretty reckless," Kon remarked. "That was at a time when we really _were_ strapped for cash. I guess I cared more about winning Gum over than I did about buying groceries and paying our rent."

She gently placed her hand onto her husband's knee. "You already won me over; you didn't need to propose so hastily." She smiled slyly while staring at her wedding ring. "Not that I minded at the time."

She looked up at Aaron's hands resting on the table and noticed that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring. "What about you? You haven't married Kat yet?"

He shook his head. "Nah, me and Kat aren't really interested in getting married. It's too formal for us, you know? All that matters is that we have each other. We live together, sleep together, play music together; why get married? It doesn't mean that we love each other any less."

"Yeah," Gum replied, "but marrying someone shows that you're committed to them. You've been with her for, like, ten years. How haven't you two tied the knot yet?"

"We already know that we're committed to each other. And as I said, she doesn't want to get married either. It doesn't say anything about our relationship. It's not like we have to worry about having kids since neither of us want any."

Kon was playing with the utensils on his corner of the table. Without thinking, he nonchalantly mentioned, "Me and Gum have been trying to have kids for a while."

Gum nudged Kon and gave him a disapproving look. "Don't bring that up. I don't want to talk about it."

Kon froze and put down his utensils. He knew he messed up.

Aaron stared blankly at both of them. "Why? What's going on?"

Gum sighed. "Well, I don't know if there's something wrong with me or what, but I just haven't been able to get pregnant. We've been trying ever since we got married, but no luck."

"Have you gone to a doctor to find out what the problem is?"

"No, and honestly I wonder if we should just give up on trying. We probably wouldn't even be able to afford a kid, anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Kon exclaimed. "You know that I make good money and having a kid isn't _that_ expensive. We'd be able to support a kid for sure."

Gum put her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand. "Yeah, maybe…"

Kon could tell that Gum was uncomfortable with the current conversation subject. He graciously changed the subject. "So Aaron, tell me more about what it's like being in your band. Like, how do you guys come up with songs?"

Aaron lit up at the mere mention of his band. "Well, it usually it starts with the song writing. We all come up with ideas for what we should write a song about, but Riko—or Cube as you both remember her as—does the rest: the music, the lyrics, the production, everything. She's pretty much the bandleader. Sometimes me and Kat contribute a bit to the song writing, but for the most part it's all her.

"Actually, she's been a bit slow at writing new material lately—our last album of original music came out three years ago, whereas we'd usually get a new album out each year. She must be going through writer's block or something.

"But anyway, once we've got enough material written, we head into the studio to record it all. It usually takes a couple months to get it all recorded and mixed. Riko's pretty efficient when it comes to that stuff, too. And when we're not recording something, we're booking live gigs at smaller venues like clubs. We usually do a few live shows each month, sometimes more. We'll actually be doing a show at a club next Tuesday. You guys should both come."

"Yeah, I'd love to," Kon replied enthusiastically. "If I'm not too busy that day, I'll totally come watch you guys."

"Same," Gum added. "It'll be cool to hear you play and to meet Cube and Kat again. Say, why didn't they come out to eat with us?"

"Oh, I didn't think to invite Riko," Aaron explained. "She didn't hang out with you guys that much back in the day, so I figured you guys wouldn't want her tagging along."

"No, it'd be cool to see her again," Gum remarked. "And what about Kat? Why didn't she come?"

Aaron shrugged. "I dunno, she said she didn't want to come."

"That's too bad," Kon said. "I'd like to get back in touch with as many people from back in the day as possible."

"You haven't kept in touch with any of the others at all?" Aaron asked him.

"Well, Soda actually works at the same company as me," Kon revealed, "but he's part of a different division so we don't really see each other too often."

"You mean he works in the same building as you?"

"Yeah."

Aaron banged his hands down on the table. "Why didn't you invite him to come eat with us? He was a part of the main GGs crew, after all."

"I know," Kon replied, "but I honestly don't really talk to him that much."

"So what? I'd have liked to see him again."

"Yeah, but you remember how he used to be. Whenever the gang would be doing something together, he'd never join in on the fun. He prefers to keep to himself."

"Yeah, I remember that about him," Gum recalled. "He probably hasn't changed much since those days."

Aaron chuckled. "Yeah, that does sound just like him. Still…"

Kon leaned back in his seat. "I wonder where all the others ended up."

"You know about Rhyth, right?" Aaron asked him.

"No, what about her?"

"She's a professional model now," Aaron informed them. "She poses for magazines and stuff. I'm surprised you guys never found out."

Kon himself was surprised of his obliviousness to Rhyth's success. "Wow, I never knew. You still talk to her?"

"No, I haven't seen her since the gang broke up. I've just seen pictures of her in magazines."

"You never tried contacting her?"

"Nah. I've thought about it, but I figured she wouldn't even respond to an e-mail. Now that she's getting modeling gigs, she probably thinks that I'm way beneath her."

"Why? What kind of modeling does she do?"

Aaron's face reddened. "Well, you know…" He chuckled awkwardly to himself. "She does some… _risqué_ photoshoots."

Gum raised her eyebrows. "Seriously? That doesn't sound like something she'd do at all."

"Yeah. She's pretty famous, I think. Compared to me, at least. How did you guys not know about her?"

"Does she go by her real name now?" Gum asked him.

"Yeah, her name's Elizabeth something. I don't remember her last name, but she shortens her first name to just Liz most of the time."

"That explains it then," Kon said. "I didn't know her real name so I wouldn't have known it was her even if I'd seen her."

"I didn't know her real name either," Aaron told them, "but when I first saw her picture in a magazine I instantly knew it was her. She even still dyes her hair blue, although she's grown it out a bit. Still, you would have recognized her if you saw her."

"I guess I don't read _those_ kinds of magazines," Kon teased Aaron.

"It's not _that_ risqué!" he assured them. "Just lingerie photos and stuff like that."

Gum glared at him accusingly. "Why are you looking at those magazines when you have Kat?"

Aaron's face went beet red. "Don't look at me like that! Sometimes a guy wants to look at other girls." He looked at Kon. "You know what I'm talking about, right?"

Kon raised both of his hands up. "Hey, don't drag me down with you."

"Oh, come on! There's nothing wrong with looking at that kind of stuff once in a while. Kat looks at male models too sometimes, so we're both even."

"Yeah, but perving on old friends is weird," Gum retorted.

Aaron crossed his arms. "Well, whatever. I was just telling you guys about her. There's no need to gang up on me."

Kon chuckled. "We're just kidding with you, dude."

"Well, mostly," Gum quipped.

"Man, screw you guys," Aaron said jokingly. "This is the first time we've seen each other in years and you guys haven't missed a beat when it comes to messing with me."

Kon smirked. "Just like old times, huh?"

Gum and Kon both glanced over at the kitchen door swinging open as the waitress brought food to another table. Their stomachs growled with impatience for their meals.

"I wonder if Rhyth's still with Yoyo," Gum mentioned. "They were still dating the last time I heard."

"I doubt it," Aaron reckoned. "She can have anyone she wants now. I doubt she'd stay with someone like him."

"Hey, it's possible."

"No, it really isn't. You've gotta see her, Gum; she's a fox now. A total looker. Here, I'll show you." Aaron pulled out his phone and began searching for photos of Rhyth.

"Maybe Yoyo's a looker now, too," Kon said.

Aaron snickered while still looking down at his phone. "Are we talking about the same Yoyo here? Whenever we'd order pizzas, he'd finish almost an entire box on his own."

Kon remembered those incidents all too well since the money for those pizzas was usually coming out of his pocket. "I know, but Rhyth's clearly changed a ton over the years so maybe he has, too. Would you ever have guessed that she'd become a professional model?"

Aaron brushed off Kon's question as he scrolled through photos on his phone until he found the perfect one to show them. "Alright, I've got one." He held his phone out for Gum and Kon to see. Displayed on its screen was a photo of Rhyth posing in designer lingerie. "See? Tell me she doesn't look hot."

Gum and Kon both stared at the photo with widened eyes.

Kon tried not to quirk a smile. "Okay, she's definitely… _changed_ since those days."

Gum elbowed him in the side. "Just because you think it, doesn't mean you have to say it."

Aaron put his phone back in his pocket. "Now, imagine what Yoyo looks like nowadays. Do you still see those two as a couple?"

"Alright, alright, we get it," Gum said to placate Aaron. "You sound like you're on a crusade to make Yoyo sound like a loser."

"I'm just saying. I've got nothing against Yoyo, but she's too good for him."

The waitress finally came to their table with their meals. The group was practically salivating as the waitress placed their food in front of them on the table. She graciously bowed and told them to enjoy their meals before walking back towards the kitchen.

Not much conversation happened while they ate as they were too hungry to speak. The only words out of their mouths were words of marvel regarding the deliciousness of their food.

"I told you this place was good," Gum said to Kon.

Once the group neared finishing their meals, they became talkative again.

"Hey Gum, we should exchange numbers," Aaron suggested. "That way we can keep in touch without having to use Kon as a middleman."

"Sure."

They both pulled out their phones and exchanged phone numbers while Kon finished off his rice bowl.

"It's great being able to see you guys again," Aaron said as he put away his phone. "We should start hanging out regularly."

"Well, we'll probably be at your live show next week," Kon mentioned.

"You guys don't wanna hang out sooner than that though?" Aaron asked them before shoving his last gyoza into his mouth with his fingers.

"Yeah, we could maybe hang out this weekend," Gum answered. "We have each other's numbers so we can easily plan a time that works for all of us."

"And maybe we can invite some of the others," Kon suggested.

"Yeah," Aaron replied as he spat crumbs out of his mouth. "I'll see if I can get Kat and Riko to tag along,"

Once Gum finished the remainder of her sushi and tea, they paid for their food individually and left the restaurant. Together, they stepped out of the alleyway and began walking towards the nearest subway station which was just a few blocks away from them.

The night was still young, but staying out any later on a weekday wasn't a good idea; at least, not for Kon who had a full-time job to return to in the morning. He checked his watch to make sure that they'd arrive at the station on time. Once he verified that they had ample time left, he relaxed for the rest of their walk.

"So," Aaron began, "have either of you reunited with your families since the days we were Rudies?"

Gum answered first, "Nope, and I have no intention of ever doing so."

"Were things really that bad between you and them?"

"In retrospect, maybe not, but it's too late to salvage my relationship with them now. Ten years have passed since I'd last seen them."

"Are you serious? What parent _wouldn't_ want to see their missing daughter after ten years? They'd probably cry tears of joy!"

Gum shrugged. "I guess the split is more for my sake than for theirs. Whatever love they might still have for me, I don't have for them. It probably sounds mean, but it's the truth. I just don't want to reunite with them, so why should I?"

Aaron was taken off guard by her blunt response. "I dunno, it's just weird to be estranged from your parents for seemingly no good reason. I hated my parents when I ran away from home too, but I eventually realized how stupid it was for me to still resent them. We reunited a few years ago and we were all really happy to see each other again."

"Same," Kon replied. "I don't badger Gum for not reuniting with her parents anymore, but I'm glad I reunited with mine. If I didn't, I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to university and then who knows where my life would be now. Gum and I would probably be struggling to get by."

Gum pointed out to Kon in a snarky tone, "As you said earlier, we're doing fine now. Besides, reuniting with my parents at this point in our lives would just complicate things, if anything."

Kon raised his hands in a pacifying manner. "Alright, let's not get into this argument right now."

"Yeah," Gum murmured under her breath.

There was a brief awkward silence where none of them said a word. The only noises coming from them were the sounds of their footsteps over the pavement, but even those were being drowned out by the ambient sounds of the city.

Aaron attempted to soothe the tension by saying in a half-joking tone, "I hope you two don't always fight this much."

"We don't," Gum said earnestly. "It's just that… I guess by reciting the last ten years of our lives to you, we're reawakening old drama."

"Well then, sorry for asking," Aaron replied sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant. It's _our_ fault for arguing about this stuff in front of you."

"Gum, I was just kidding," Aaron assured her. "The other people in the restaurant were probably more bothered by your arguing than I was."

"Were we really arguing that loud?" Kon asked him.

"Not really, but that place was pretty cramped so I wouldn't be surprised if the other people there overheard you guys."

They arrived at the train station right as a train departed from the above-ground terminal platform. Aaron looked at the ticker board on the outside of the station and saw that it was almost his train's arrival time.

"Shit, I think my train's about to get here," he exclaimed.

They all ran into the station and towards the underground ticket gates. They pulled out their phones and hovered them over the contactless payment reader which automatically charged the cost of the train fare to their bank accounts. They moved through the turnstiles and looked around the subway platform, but Aaron's train wasn't there yet. One minute later though, a woman's voice came on the intercom and announced that his train was currently arriving at the station. Sure enough, his train stopped at one of the platforms.

He turned towards Gum and Kon. "Well, it was great seeing both of you again. I'll see ya later."

"Bye, Aaron!"

"See ya, man."

Gum and Kon watched Aaron board his subway train. Not long after he boarded, the doors shut and the train took off. Kon looked at the ticker board hanging in the platform for their train's arrival time. He saw that they'd only have to wait a few more minutes, so they both sat down on a nearby bench.

"That's Aaron for you," Kon muttered. "Ten years have gone by and he hasn't changed one bit."

"What do you mean?" Gum asked him. "He's playing in a band, living with his girlfriend, and he even reunited with his family. It sounds like he's changed a lot in that time."

Kon lowered his eyes. "Yeah, but he hasn't changed as a _person._ "

"Huh?"

"He's not stuck in a nine to five job or with kids to support."

Gum looked at Kon with concern. "What's wrong with those things? That's the kind of life that _we_ want to have."

"But it's not the kind of life that Aaron would have wanted to have. If you told the Aaron of ten years ago that he'd become a drummer in a band, he'd be happy as hell. If you told the _me_ of ten years ago where his life was gonna end up, he'd probably be bummed out a bit."

"What are you saying? Do you not like what you have?"

"No, I'm perfectly happy my current life. But ten years ago, I wouldn't have been. Ten years ago, I'd be pissed to learn that I'd be working for 'the man' and living live as an ordinary citizen, paying my taxes and all that. I mean, it was stupid to think that we wouldn't all eventually integrate into regular society, but at least Aaron's doing something that he would have loved when he was a kid. He's adored Kat's music since before he was even a Rudie. Even _you've_ still got your artwork which you've been passionate about your entire life. What am _I_ doing to keep my youth's spirit alive? Nothing!"

Gum groaned. "So what? Why do you care about what your sixteen-year-old self would have wanted? People change, you know. You've grown up, just like all of us have. You don't see me and Aaron still wearing skates and spraying graffiti like we did back in the day, do you?"

Kon sighed deeply. "Yeah, I know. I guess seeing Aaron again got me thinking about when I was younger. Just forget everything I said. I wasn't thinking clearly."

Gum put her hand on his shoulder. "Kon, are you going through a midlife crisis or something?"

Kon chuckled. "It's a bit early for me to be going through one of those, don't you think?"

"Well, you're acting strange. Is something wrong?"

"I'm fine. I was just saying stuff as it popped into my head without thinking about whether it actually reflected how I really feel. Don't worry about it."

Kon gave Gum a reassuring smile, but she was still uneasy from his sudden outburst. Before she could ask him to elaborate on what he just said though, the woman's voice reappeared on the intercom to announce that their train was arriving at the station. They both stood up as their train came to a stop at the platform closest to them. The doors opened as a crowd of people exited the train while another crowd entered. Gum and Kon boarded their train and headed home. They didn't mention the conversation they had for the rest of the night.


	3. Extension

**Chapter 3 – Extension**

It was early in the afternoon. Aaron and Kat were meeting with Riko at her house for a band meeting. They all sat kneeling around a kotatsu—a traditional Japanese table with a heavy blanket overtop it and a heater beneath it—in her living room. Each of them had a cup of tea on the table, but they weren't drinking much; they were too preoccupied with their ongoing argument. Kat seemed to be growing especially frustrated towards her bandleader.

"How much new material do you have written?" she asked Riko in an irritated tone.

Riko didn't look much different from how she did ten years ago, but she had matured more than either of her bandmates. While Aaron and Kat would often goof off during recording sessions and concerts, she'd take her work very seriously. It seemed to pay off though, since the majority of their albums that she wrote were well received, both critically and commercially. Despite that, she had no love interests in her life.

"Not much," she answered Kat's question, slightly ashamed of her lack of progress. "Just a few bits and pieces."

Kat groaned. "Dammit, Riko! How have you not come up with a single new song in the past two years? Our label is pissed off at us, you know that? They might drop us if we don't give them something soon. We were lucky to hold them off with that cover album, but our next album has to be original and it has to come out soon. Like, in less than half a year."

"You think I don't know all that?" Riko retorted. She rubbed her forehead wearily. "See, this is why I wanted us to start our own label. That way, we wouldn't have to deal with this kind of shit."

"You seriously haven't written _anything_ though?" Aaron asked her.

"I wrote _some_ stuff, but I don't really like any of it."

"Who cares?" Kat exclaimed. "We're desperate here! Just give us what you've got."

"No way. I have standards. I'm not going to taint our reputation just to get an album out."

Aaron reasoned, "Just because _you_ don't like it, doesn't mean others won't."

Riko crossed her arms. "I don't care. If I'm putting music out under my name, I want it to be something that I'm proud of."

" _Our_ name," Kat corrected her. "Aaron and I don't get a say in this?"

"Not when I'm the one writing and producing the music. It's not like I've let you guys down yet, right?"

"You're about to," Kat muttered under her breath. Still, although she hated to admit it, Riko was right: without her, their band would be nothing. Nevertheless, she was worried that Riko was beginning to lose her song writing magic. "Alright, fine," she conceded, "but how do you plan on overcoming your writer's block?"

Riko shrugged. "I think I'm just burnt-out from writing the same old kind of songs. I want to try something new with our next album, but I haven't really gotten a good idea yet."

"What do you mean by 'something new?'" Kat asked her with intrigue.

"Just a different kind of sound, maybe a different kind of subject matter. I want to try experimenting a bit."

"Experimenting? But we've got a good thing going right now. What if nobody likes it? We don't have underground radio stations to guarantee us airplay anymore."

The radio station that Kat was referring to was Jet Set Radio, an old pirate radio station that was on the air during Rokkaku Gouji's tenure as mayor of Tokyo. Hosted by a mysterious man named DJ Professor K, its stated purpose was to promote political dissent and encourage rebellion. The station proved invaluable to Rudies, who would use it as a news source on gang activities in the city. At noon of each day, DJ Professor K would come on to deliver information regarding the government and street gangs of Tokyo, but throughout the rest of the day he would play music from bands who had been blacklisted from commercial radio at Gouji's behest. One of those bands was Rapid 99, who quickly became the station's most popular music group. Their frequent airplay helped boost their popularity once Gouji stepped down and they were no longer blacklisted from commercial radio. However, Gouji's resignation also meant that Jet Set Radio no longer had a special purpose, and one day the station went off the air, never to return.

"We don't need to worry about exposure anymore," Cube assured Kat. "We've established ourselves enough as artists that we can put out something that's a bit different and still get airplay on indie stations. As long as it's good, we'll be fine."

Kat sighed. "I just don't wanna risk alienating out fans if they don't like whatever new 'formula' you come up with."

"Our fans are pretty diehard; they wouldn't ditch us after one disappointing album."

Kat still wasn't convinced. She recognized Riko's song writing abilities, but she considered those abilities limited to the style of music that they were used to playing. Riko hadn't proven that she could tackle different genres of music and Kat didn't think that they could afford to release a disappointing album after such a long hiatus of new material. They were at risk of being dropped by their record label and she didn't want to increase that risk by releasing an album that would confuse their label and fans.

Aaron spoke up for the first time since the argument began, "I dunno, I think it'd be cool if we tried something new, and I trust Riko to pull it off."

Aaron had a special admiration for Riko, both as a musician and as a person. He would often sit and watch in wonder as she mixed their albums all by herself, making sure that she'd get the exact kind of sound that she wanted. She was usually very productive when it came to the writing and recording process; this was the first time she'd ever been idle for a long period of time. Nevertheless, Aaron was confident that all she needed to break out of her writer's block was a little bit of inspiration.

Kat glared at Aaron. Without him on her side, she was outnumbered.

"Whatever," she said. "As long as it sparks her creative juices and gets her coming up with new songs." She picked up her cup of tea and finally took a sip from it.

Riko smiled faintly at Aaron before taking a sip from her own cup of tea. She seemed appreciative of his support, but he sensed some uncertainty on her face, as if she was doubting her own abilities more than Kat was. Aaron simply returned the smile in kind.

* * *

Kon was riding the subway train home from work, sitting down on a seat between two people with his laptop bag on his lap. The view outside his window looked drab and there was nothing interesting happening on the train, with most of the passengers keeping to themselves. With nothing better to do, he pulled out his phone. He thought about texting Aaron and asking him if there were any new movies he was interested in seeing, but he decided to wait until he was at home with Gum so she could have a say in the matter. He opted to read the local news instead.

He scrolled through a list of articles until one caught his eye—it concerned plans for the city's infrastructure. He opened the article and quickly read through it.

 _On Thursday afternoon the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism finalized plans for major infrastructural improvements to the city. One of their top priorities is to demolish and replace buildings that have been deemed outdated or unnecessary. The first building on their schedule is the Rokkaku Hotel near Dogenzaka which had its construction halted twelve years ago and was left unfinished. No date has been set for the demolition to begin, but the governor of Tokyo stated that it would be as soon as possible._

Kon stared blankly at his phone, his heart sunken into his stomach. His worst fear was becoming a reality—his old hangout spot, the Garage, was going to be demolished.

Memories of living in the Garage with the other GGs came flooding back to him. They only lived there for less than two years but it was the best time in his life. He hadn't returned there in ages, but only because he thought that it would always be there if he ever got the urge to visit it. Now time was running out before it would be gone forever.

"Next stop, Shibuya Station."

Once again, an announcement over the intercom snapped him out of his trance. He put his phone back into his pocket and waited impatiently for the train to crawl to a stop. Once it did, he exited the train and began walking home at a fast pace. He had to tell Gum about the news right away and it was too important to do it over the phone.

He rushed a few blocks to his neighbourhood. Once he arrived at his house, he passed through the front gate and opened the front door just as Gum was walking past the entryway. She stopped to look at him, detecting some urgency in the way he came in.

"Hey hun, is something wrong?" she asked him.

Kon closed the door and kicked off his shoes. In an anxious tone, he told her, "I just read in the news that they're gonna be tearing down the Garage pretty soon."

Gum was confused. "What garage?"

Kon was baffled by her response. "The Garage we used to live in! You and I and the rest of the GGs! They're gonna demolish the whole place and build something else over top it!"

"Oh, really? I thought they weren't gonna do it anymore."

Gum walked into the living room. She didn't seem at all saddened by the news.

"Apparently it was just delayed," Kon said while placing his laptop bag on a side table. He took off his coat and hung it in the entryway closet before following Gum into the living room.

"Why do you sound so upset by it?" she asked him as she sat down on the couch in front of the TV. The TV was already on and turned to one of her favourite drama shows.

Kon sat down next to her. "Because I have so many fond memories of that place. The time I spent there made me into the person I am today. And hey, you should be just as sad as me: you were the first person I showed the place to after I discovered it. Remember that summer? It was the best summer of our lives, and you and I put a lot of work into turning it into a livable place once we both decided to run away from home."

Gum gently placed her hand on his knee. "I have a lot of fond memories of the place too, but I knew it was going to be demolished eventually. We're lucky it survived for so long. Hell, we're lucky they didn't boot us out of the place while we were squatting there!"

"So you're fine with them just tearing the place down?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm not gonna flip out over every little thing that doesn't go my way in life."

Kon balled his hands into fists. "This isn't a small thing! This is big, at least for me it is! And I can't be the only one who cares about that place. The other GGs probably don't want it to be torn down either."

Gum gave Kon a wry look. "I'm sure they've all moved on, too."

Kon grumbled to himself. He didn't say anything for some time, but Gum could tell that he was thinking hard about something. She returned to watching TV while Kon was deep in his thoughts. After a while, he shared what was on his mind with Gum.

"I've gotta try to stop the demolition."

Gum looked at him as if he was crazy. "What?"

Kon spoke with a genuine fervour, "There's gotta be something I can do. Maybe I can convince the local government not to go through with it."

Gum's bewildered expression didn't change. "Why? And… just how the hell are you gonna accomplish something like that?"

"I dunno. Maybe I can convince them that a lot of people care about the place."

"Are you delusional? How is that gonna work?"

"That's how we got Rokkaku Gouji to step down, isn't it?"

"That was completely different! The whole city wanted him gone! How many people care about some old abandoned hotel?"

Kon stood up from the couch. "That's what I'm gonna find out."

He stepped out of the living space and walked into their bedroom. Gum followed him, concerned by the way he was acting.

"Kon, are you being serious right now? There's nothing you can do to save the Garage."

Kon turned around to face her. "Gum, I have to at least try. If I don't, I'll never forgive myself. The Garage means a lot to me and I can't just sit and let it disappear without a fight."

Gum gazed intently into his eyes. She could sense that he was truly passionate about saving the Garage. Even though she thought it was stupid for him to even try, it was clear to her that there was nothing she could do to change his mind.

She exhaled in resignation. "So what are you planning to do?"

He pulled his phone out from his pocket. "First, I'm gonna ask Aaron if he knows how I can get in contact with Rhyth. I need as many people on my side as possible, and the other GGs are my best bet. Once I get enough support, I'll go on from there."

Gum didn't know how to react. She knew that she wouldn't be able to stop him, but she didn't want to encourage him either. With nothing more to say, she turned around walked towards the door while staring at the ground. She paused in the door frame and gave Kon one last lingering look of concern before walking out of the room. Kon was staring at his phone and didn't notice her.

Aaron had already returned home from Riko's house and was playing a videogame on his bed when his phone began to ring. He paused the game and picked up his phone from his bedside table. After seeing that it was Kon who was calling him, he answered his phone and put it up to his ear.

"Hey, Kon. What's up?"

"Hey Aaron, I'm just calling because I have a question for you."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Do you know how I can get in contact with Rhyth? I figured you'd know if she has a mailing address or something."

Aaron wasn't expecting Kon's question to be about Rhyth. "Uh, yeah, she has her own website and if you go there you'll see an e-mail address she uses for receiving fan mail. I dunno if she'll answer you though."

"What's her website address?"

"I think it's just her full name. Why don't you look it up?"

"How am I supposed do to that if I don't even _know_ her full name?"

Aaron stood up from his bed. "Oh, right. I don't remember her full name off the top of my head, but I can find it and text it to you."

"That'd be great, thanks."

"No problem. So, is that all you wanted?"

"Yeah. I'll text you some other time to make plans for us getting together."

Aaron shrugged; he thought for sure that the reason Kon was calling him was to make plans. "Yeah, that's fine," he said. "See ya."

"Bye."

Aaron hung up and walked over to his closet with his phone still in his hand. He began digging around the items scattered on the floor in the closet. There were plenty of shoes belonging to Kat, as well as other assorted things they had no other place to store. Aaron pulled out a box filled with magazines—each with an attractive woman posing on the front cover—and searched through it for a specific issue. Once he found the issue with Rhyth on the front cover, he flipped through its pages until he found the article about her. The article printed her full name and website address.

He texted Kon her name before throwing the magazine back in its box and shoving the box back into the closet. Right as he sat back down on his bed, Kon texted him his thanks. Aaron placed his phone back onto his bedside table and resumed the game he was playing.

After receiving the text with Rhyth's full name, Kon took his laptop out of its bag and sat down on his bed with it. He typed Rhyth's name into a search engine, and sure enough, her website was the first result.

 _Right, her name's Elizabeth but she goes by Liz. Okay, so let's see…_

Kon clicked on the link to Liz's website. The front page exhibited many suggestive images of the girl who he once knew as bubbly but prudish. Never in a million years would he have predicted that she'd become a professional model who'd have revealing pictures taken of herself for the world to see. He wondered what caused her to go through such a drastic change since the last time he'd seen her.

After he forced himself to ignore the myriad of skimpy photos, he found her fan mail e-mail address. With the contact information he was looking for, he began typing out an e-mail in the hopes that she'd read it. In the e-mail, he reintroduced himself to her and asked if she'd like to meet with him and Gum sometime soon. He left out any mention of the Garage, wanting to keep the e-mail positive and not come off as a solicitor. Once he reread the e-mail a few times and was satisfied with what he had typed out, he clicked send.

* * *

The clock struck five at Kon's workplace as his colleagues began packing up their belongings to go home for the weekend. The office room that they worked in had ample open space and a modern but sterile look, with large window panes that gave them a decent view of the Tokyo skyline. Their desks were spaced back to back in multiple rows, with Kon's desk residing in the middle.

Kon began clearing out his desk, but before he shut his laptop he decided to check his e-mails. To his surprise, he already received a reply from Liz. He excitedly opened the e-mail and read its contents.

 _Hi, Kon! Or should I still call you Corn? Anyway, it's great to hear from you again. It's been so long since we've last seen each other, and I'd love to see you and Gum again. I always knew you two would end up together! How about this weekend? There's this great ramen shop I know about that we can all go to. It'll be my treat! Oh, and Yoyo's gonna come, too. I can't wait to catch up with you guys!_

The e-mail also included her personal phone number so they could more easily communicate. Kon was surprised by how enthusiastic she was to reconnect with them. He was also surprised by her mention of Yoyo and that he would be meeting with them as well. Why was she still calling him by his old Rudie nickname, and were they really still together?

He added her into his phone's contacts list and quickly typed out an e-mail response saying that tomorrow would be a great time to meet and that he'd see if Aaron would tag along, although he had no doubt in his mind that Aaron would come just to see her in person. Once the e-mail sent, he packed up his laptop into his bag. Before he could head home though, there was one person at work who he wanted to talk to.

He threw his laptop bag over his shoulder and rushed over to the opposite end of the building to grab his coat from the coat rack. With his coat over his arm, he entered an elevator and descended to the first floor of the building. There, in the main lobby, was where he would wait. With hundreds of people working in the same building and with multiple exits, there was no guarantee that he'd find the right person.

Luckily for him though, it didn't take long for the person he was looking for to walk through the lobby. The man was taller than Kon and had short brown hair, a hairstyle much different from the one he had ten years ago.

"Hey, Kodi!" Kon called out to him while chasing him down.

Kodi, who used to go by the nickname Soda, stopped and turned towards Kon.

"Hey, Kon," Kodi replied in a monotone voice. "Let me guess: you want to ask me for something?"

"Kinda. Did you hear about how our old hideout is gonna be torn down?"

"You mean the Garage?"

"Yeah."

"Cool."

Kon was taken aback by Kodi's reaction. "What do you mean 'cool?' It's terrible! Don't you care about the Garage?"

"Uhh, no? Why should I give a shit about that place anymore?"

"You don't remember the good times we all had there? Because I do, and that's why I want to try to prevent it from being demolished."

Kodi snickered. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, and I could really use your help."

"Dude, old buildings get torn down all the time. They're not gonna keep the place around just because someone has good memories of it. If they did, nothing would ever get done in this city."

"I don't care, man. It's worth trying."

"Well, good luck with your delusion but I want nothing to do with it. Later."

Kodi turned around and walked out of the building. Kon stood still for a moment, feeling insulted and dejected. He quickly shook off those unwanted feelings, though. Kodi was just being his smug and uncaring self, he told himself. He should have known better than to go to him for help. Saving the Garage was too important of a task for him to let himself get discouraged by naysayers.

Besides, he had a meeting with a professional model tomorrow.


	4. Small World

**Chapter 4 – Small World**

The sidewalks of Shibuya were crowded with heavy foot traffic. It was on weekends when the shopping district was at its busiest, as people from all over Tokyo would always come to spend their free time perusing the local stores. Thankfully, although there was a chill in the air, the sky was bright and clear without a single hint of storm clouds.

Aaron, Gum, and Kon walked along the sidewalk together, each of them wearing a warm autumn coat to counteract the cold breeze, on their way to meet with Liz and Yoyo for lunch. Since none of them knew where the meetup place was, Kon used a map on his phone to guide them to it.

"I think it's just up ahead," he told the others. "Liz said they'll be sitting outside at a table."

"It's chilly out," Gum remarked. "Why are they sitting outside?"

Kon replied, "Maybe the place doesn't have any free tables inside. Besides, it's not that cold out. The ramen will warm us up, anyway."

He put his phone away as they were coming up on the ramen shop that Liz suggested they eat lunch at. Sure enough, after passing by a few more storefronts, they spotted Liz up ahead sitting at a sidewalk table with her purse on her lap. They also noticed an unfamiliar person sitting next to her who she seemed to be chatting with.

Liz looked away from her friend and noticed the group walking towards them. With a big grin on her face, she put her purse on the table and stood up from her seat to wave at them. Her friend looked to see who she was waving at.

"Yo! What's up, guys?"

The group almost didn't recognize Yoyo. His hair was no longer dyed green and instead displayed its natural red colour, and he had gained a noticeable amount of weight. He also lost his incredibly high-pitched—and somewhat annoying—voice, although there was still a slight scratchiness to it.

Liz, on the other hand, looked identical to the magazine photographs they had all seen of her before. Even her voice sounded almost the same as it did ten years ago. She embraced Gum while the others shook hands with Yoyo before they all sat down together at the somewhat-cramped table.

"It's great to see you guys," Kon said to Liz and Yoyo. "How've you two been?"

"Great!" Liz replied enthusiastically as she turned to look at Yoyo. "Things have never been better for us. We're both married and living happily together."

"Oh, that's awesome," Gum responded. "When did you guys get married?"

"About four years ago." Liz leaned into the table and playfully bit her bottom lip. "I was the one who proposed because Yoyo was too shy to."

"Was not!" Yoyo exclaimed. "I just… didn't know the best time to propose."

Liz rolled her eyes. "Well, I got tired of waiting so I just went for it. He totally tried to act cool when I proposed, but I could tell he was about ready to burst."

Yoyo's face went beet red. "You don't have to tell them _everything!_ "

Liz giggled. "Well, that's how it happened."

Kon laughed. Liz seemed to get enjoyment out of teasing Yoyo; that hadn't changed either. He wondered if calling him by his old nickname was her other way of teasing him.

"I had no idea you became a model," he told her. "When Aaron first told me about it, I almost didn't believe him. How'd you get started, anyway?"

Liz leaned back in her chair. "I started about two years after the GGs broke up, when I was eighteen. I really needed some quick money so I took a one-time modeling gig. At first the idea creeped me out—having older men order me around to do sexy poses while taking revealing pictures of me—but I was desperate at the time. I wasn't planning on doing any more after that one photoshoot, but the company kept trying to get me back to do more. They said I was really good at modeling so I relented and did a few more photoshoots for them, and after a while I started to like it. Eventually, a modeling agency contacted me and its been my career ever since."

Gum was fascinated by Liz's story. "That's crazy, girl. It sucks that things used to be rough for you, but I'm glad you managed to bounce back. I still have a hard time picturing you as a model though."

"I know, I used to be a really strait-laced person. It's not like my worries were unwarranted though: there _are_ a lot of creeps in the modeling industry. At least now I'm confident enough to stand up for myself when people try to mess with me."

"Good for you," Gum replied encouragingly. "Don't let those assholes stop you from doing what you enjoy."

Liz nodded with a smile. "Trust me; I don't."

Kon looked at Yoyo. "So hey, I still don't know what your real name is."

Yoyo dramatically scratched his chin. "Hmm… You know, it's been so long since I've heard it that I've totally forgotten what it was."

Liz playfully nudged him in the side. "Nice excuse." She turned her head to face the others. "He's just joking. He doesn't like telling people what his real name is."

"Why not?" Kon asked them.

Yoyo glared fiercely at Liz. "Don't you dare tell them!"

She giggled. "Don't worry, even _I_ wouldn't do something that cruel to you."

Gum empathetically reached out to Yoyo. "Hey, there's nothing wrong with disliking your name. I got my name legally changed to Gum because I hated my original name. It had too many memories associated with it that I wanted to forget about."

"Really?" Yoyo pensively tapped his nails against the table. "You know, maybe I should legally change my name, too."

"No way!" Liz objected. "Your name isn't _that_ bad. I kinda like it."

"That only makes one of us," Yoyo grumbled.

"Uh, guys?" Aaron interrupted the conversation. "We're just sitting out here talking when I haven't eaten anything all day. Let's go order our food. I'm starving here!"

"Oh, you don't have to," Liz told him. "This ramen shop only makes one kind of ramen each day and they bring it out to you automatically when you sit down. I told them to hold off on bringing us our bowls until you guys show up though, so we should be getting them pretty soon."

"Oh, cool," Aaron replied. "What have they got today?"

"Miso ramen with pepper and garlic. I hope you guys like it. This place makes it really well."

"Ugh," Yoyo moaned. "Why couldn't we just go get burgers instead?"

Liz scowled at him, annoyed by his churlish complaining. "This is a special occasion, Yoyo. We haven't seen everyone in forever."

"But everyone likes burgers!"

"Well, I'm the one paying for everyone's food so I get to decide where we all eat."

"You don't have to do that, Liz," Kon told her. "We can all pay for ourselves."

"It's fine, Kon," she assured him. "I already told you that this was my treat. Consider this repayment for all the times you bought us pizza back in the day."

A server stepped outside of the ramen shop while carrying bowls of ramen and brought them to their table, passing a bowl, chopsticks, and napkin out to each of them. He respectfully bowed before returning back into the shop. The group didn't hesitate to dig into their bowls.

"Wow, this is delicious," Gum said while slurping noodles into her mouth.

Yoyo picked at the ingredients of his bowl with his chopsticks. He was a fussy eater unless he was eating junk food.

"So Yoyo," Aaron began, "what do you do for a living?"

"Oh," Yoyo replied while aimlessly stirring his ramen. "I don't have a job."

"Really? Why not."

Yoyo looked down into his bowl. "I dunno, I just can't find one. Nobody wants to hire me because I don't really have any work skills."

Liz added, "I make enough money for the both of us so he's never really motivated to get a job."

"You really make that much?" Gum asked her. "Enough for both of you to live comfortably?"

"Yeah, we live in a nice house and can afford anything we need. It's a lot better than how we were living nine or eight years ago."

Kon was surprised. "I didn't know you got that much money from modeling. That's crazy."

Yoyo replied while Liz continued to eat her ramen, "She's all over the place. Haven't you seen any ads or photos with a blue-haired girl in them before? It's a dead giveaway."

"I probably have," Kon figured, "but a lot of people dye their hair a different colour. I just never figured that she'd become a professional model."

Aaron told Liz as an aside, "Hey, when I first saw you in a magazine, I instantly knew it was you." He slurped some more noodles into his mouth.

Liz looked up from her bowl. "Really? Which magazine was it in?"

Aaron almost choked on his noodles. He couldn't tell her that it was a lingerie magazine as that would make things too awkward. "Uhh, I don't remember."

"Was it a picture of me posing in underwear or something?"

Everyone else nearly spat out their ramen. Liz stared at them, confused by their sudden reactions.

Aaron stammered, "N-No, it was nothing like that!"

"It better not have been!" Yoyo snapped at him.

"What's the big deal, guys?" Liz asked them. "It's not a secret that I sometimes pose in lingerie for magazines. If I was uncomfortable with people seeing me like that, I wouldn't be doing it anymore."

Regardless of how Liz felt, everyone else was uncomfortable with talking about her lingerie photos so openly. They quietly continued eating their ramen, aside from Yoyo who only ate a few nibbles.

Kon finished his first, drinking the leftover soup straight from the bowl. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and leaned back in his chair.

"Man, that was amazing. You were right about this place, Liz."

Liz grinned as she slurped up the remainder of her noodles. "Yeah, I love coming here and trying out their different dishes. This place taught me to really appreciate ramen and to see it as an art form. When I was younger, I didn't think about the effort these cooks put into their dishes. But then again, back in those days we'd usually just get a few pizzas delivered to the Garage. Not much artistry there, you know?"

"Actually," Kon began, "speaking of the Garage, did you hear that it's going to be demolished?"

Yoyo dropped his chopsticks into his bowl. "Really? Why?"

"I dunno, they wanna improve the city's infrastructure and get rid of old unused buildings."

Aaron put down his bowl after drinking the rest of the soup. "Well, you can't blame them for wanting to do that." He wiped his mouth with his napkin.

"Don't you think it sucks though?"

Aaron balled up his napkin and threw it onto the table. "I guess it'll be sad to see it gone considering all the good times we had there."

"Yeah," Liz agreed, "that's where we all met each other. I really loved that place."

Gum knew where Kon was leading the conversation towards. She quietly finished her ramen bowl right as he confirmed her suspicions.

"I was thinking," he began, "what if there was a way for us to stop it from being demolished?"

Aaron smothered a bemused chuckle. "Uh, I doubt there's anything we can do to stop it."

"How do you know? There's gotta be something we can do." There was a hint of desperation in Kon's voice.

Aaron gave him a strange look. "Are you serious about this, dude? You really wanna try to save the Garage?"

"Yeah. Don't you guys?" Kon looked at the others for validation.

"It'd be cool if we could," Yoyo said. "I haven't been there in forever. I wonder what it looks like now. It's probably all decayed and shit."

"Do you really think we could save it?" Liz asked Kon.

"Yeah," he replied. "As long as we get enough people on our side to help us. I don't know who else to ask though."

"What about Soda?" Aaron suggested.

Kon slowly shook his head. "Nah, I already tried but he wasn't interested in helping."

Gum finally spoke up to Liz and Yoyo. "Do you guys know what happened to any of the other GGs?" She wasn't interested in helping Kon with his plans though; rather, she wanted to reconnect with more of her old friends.

Liz's face lit up. "Yeah, Jazz and I have kept in touch over the years."

"Really? What's she up to nowadays?"

"She lives in an apartment by herself over on Hikage. She loves writing, and sometimes she sends me poems and short stories for me to read. They're pretty good."

"Hikage?" Aaron uttered. "That's a shitty street to live on."

"Yeah, but apparently it's all she can afford. She works at a convenience store and they don't pay her too much. Hopefully she can get her writing career to take off. Sometimes I give her a bit of money to help pay the bills because I feel so bad for her. She's a smart woman and she deserves better than the life she's got."

"That sucks," Gum said sympathetically.

"What's her real name?" Kon asked Liz. "Or does she prefer using her nickname, too?"

"No, Jazz is actually her real name."

"Is it short for Jasmine or something?"

"Nope, it's just Jazz. Isn't that a cool name?"

"Hmph," Yoyo interjected with a sullen expression. "It's cooler than mine, that's for sure." His look abruptly switched from sulky to excited. "Anyway, did you guys know that Combo is a pro wrestler now?"

Aaron reacted with disbelief. "No way! Seriously?"

Yoyo continued, "Yeah, he's in one of Japan's indie wrestling circuits. He even uses Combo as his ring name. I met him a few times after some of his shows."

"When's his next show?" Kon asked Yoyo. "I wanna meet him, too."

"It might be tomorrow. They do one every Sunday, but I dunno if he'll be there. I think I'm gonna go see it anyway though; I haven't been to a live show in a while."

"Cool. We should go together." Kon turned to face Gum. "You wanna come too?"

"Nah," she answered. "I don't wanna sit and watch people wrestle for two hours. I'll try to meet him some other day." She looked towards Liz. "Jazz lives pretty close to here though, right? You think we could visit her today if she's not busy?"

"Maybe," Liz replied. "I could call her and ask."

"You should. It'd be great if we could go over there later."

Kon was also very much interested in reuniting with Jazz. Ten years ago, she came up with the plan that successfully forced Rokkaku Gouji to resign as mayor of Tokyo. If she could accomplish that, he was certain that she'd be able to come up with a plan that would save the Garage.

Liz dug through her purse and pulled out her phone. Everyone else was quiet as she dialled Jazz's number and put her phone up to her ear. It rung for a few seconds before she received an answer.

"Hey, Jazz! How are you?"

The others heard Jazz talking on the other end, but they couldn't make out what she was saying.

"That's good," Liz responded. "Guess who's with me right now. Beat, Corn, and Gum! Remember them?"

Again, there was another pause while Jazz replied.

"Yeah, we just finished eating lunch together. We were all wondering if we could come by to your apartment to see you. You're not busy today, are you?"

After hearing Jazz's response, Liz looked to Gum for an answer. "Right now?"

Gum and the others nodded.

"Yeah, we could come by now. We'll see you soon!" Liz hung up and put her phone back in her purse. She looked towards the others who were ready to leave. "So, we're all going over there?"

"Not me," Yoyo said as he stood up from his seat. "I'm gonna go get something good to eat and then head home."

"How are you gonna get home?" Liz asked him. "We'll be taking my car to Jazz's place."

"I'll take the train or something," he replied.

Liz looked down at his barely-touched bowl. "But you hardly ate any of your ramen. The cook's gonna be insulted if you don't finish it."

"Hey, I'll finish it," Aaron offered. "I'm still kinda hungry, even after eating mine."

Yoyo slid his bowl over to Aaron's side of the table. "Dig in, dude. I'll see you all later."

Aaron moved the bowl closer to himself and grabbed his chopsticks. "Peace out, man." Without hesitation, he began slurping down Yoyo's noodles.

"Bye, Yoyo," Gum said to him while waving goodbye. "It was great seeing you again."

"I'll see ya tomorrow," Kon reminded him. "Get Liz to give you my number later so we can text each other about the wrestling show."

"Will do," Yoyo replied. "Later."

He shoved his hands into his pockets and began strolling down the sidewalk in search for another place to eat at. Liz kept her gaze focused on him as he walked away. Kon detected a hint of disappointment in her face. He did find it strange that Yoyo wasn't interested in hanging out with them for a while longer despite having not seen any of them in nearly a decade.

Gum stood up from her chair. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom while Aaron finishes eating. When I get back, we can all head off."

Liz stood up with her and grabbed her wallet from her purse. "Alright, and I'll go pay for our meals."

They both walked into the ramen shop, leaving Aaron and Kon alone at the table. Aaron rushed to finish his ramen before the others returned while Kon stared down at his phone, searching for any recent news articles regarding the demolition of the Garage. There were none that he could find, but he didn't know whether to be thankful or worried; he had no way of knowing how much time there was left before the demolition would commence.

He put his phone away and stared at Aaron eating his ramen. It was good to see him again after all these years. He didn't seem too eager to help save the Garage, but he'd probably come around eventually once they reunited with more of their old friends. Hopefully they'd do so before it was too late.

Gum and Liz both returned to the table at the same time to see Aaron slurp up the last of his noodles. He then put the bowl to his mouth and drank the rest of the soup down. Once he had completely drained his bowl, he put it back down on the table and let out a quick belch that still tasted of miso in his mouth. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his stomach, his hunger fully satisfied.

Liz put her wallet back into her purse and strapped it over her shoulder. "Alright, let's go!"

* * *

Aaron, Gum, Kon, and Liz opened the entrance doors to Jazz's apartment building and stepped inside. Liz walked over to the dialer and entered the code that corresponded with Jazz's apartment. After a few seconds, Jazz's voice came over the speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hey, we're here!" Liz spoke into the intercom.

"Alright, come on up."

They heard the doors to the building's lobby unlock. Liz opened them and directed the others inside. The look of the interior was off-putting to say the least. Lifeless potted plants greeted them to the lobby and succinctly displayed just how poorly-maintained the building was. The carpet in the dimly-lit lobby was strangely discolored and they spotted a few bugs crawling on the walls. It depressed them just to walk through it; they couldn't imagine what it would be like to actually live there.

The elevator was out of order so they were forced to take the stairs. They entered the trash-littered stairwell and ascended to the fourth floor. Once there, they walked through the narrow hallway where Jazz's apartment door resided. An odd smell permeated the air but they couldn't pinpoint its source.

Liz led them to Jazz's apartment and knocked on the door. They waited a moment for the door to unlock and open to reveal Jazz on the other side.

"Hi, guys," she greeted them. "Long time no see. Come on in."

She shook each of their hands as they stepped into her apartment, aside from Liz whose familiarity didn't warrant any further acknowledgement.

Her apartment was cramped, but compared to the rest of the apartment building it was relatively tidy. It consisted of one main room, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. There was no separate bedroom, so her bed and closet were out in the open for each of them to see. A solitary window brought some natural light into the room, but the group still felt like they were standing in the dark. There was a floor lamp in the corner of the room but it was left off, perhaps to save money on the electricity bill.

Jazz closed the door behind them and sat down on a chair next to a desk covered with papers. "You all can go ahead and sit on my bed," she told them, "since there's nowhere else for you guys to sit. Sorry about that."

They all glanced at each before sitting down side by side on her bed. The mattress springs squeaked as they all sat down at once.

Jazz didn't look much different from how she did years ago. She hardly grew in stature and was therefore noticeably shorter than the rest of them, and she had kept her bleached white hair.

"So," Jazz began, "your names can't all be the same as they were a decade ago."

"Mine wasn't," Gum said, "but I actually had it legally changed to Gum a few years ago. I'm the only one here who did that, though."

"Interesting," Jazz replied. "As for the rest of you, though?" She looked towards the others who both revealed their names in turn.

"My real name's Kon."

"And mine's Aaron."

"Well, it's good to see you guys again," Jazz said. "Liz is the only person who I've kept in touch with since the group broke up. Not that I was trying to avoid the rest of you; that's just how things ended up."

"I know what you mean," Kon replied. "I didn't keep in touch with anyone, other than Gum whose now my wife."

The revelation made Jazz smile. "Really? That's great."

Gum leaned forward in her seat and bowed as a sign of gratitude. "Thanks. So, how've you been?"

Jazz turned her head to look around her apartment. "Well, as indicated by the state of my living space, I've not been _too_ well-off."

"Yeah, Liz told us about your situation," Gum mentioned. "I hope things get better for you."

"Thank you, but there's no use in me dwelling over my circumstance. I prefer to focus on my writings. I'd rather my accomplishments define my life than my misfortunes."

Despite her unfortunate living affair, Jazz appeared dignified in both her mannerisms and speech. The others always considered her to be the most mature of the group, but it seemed like she went through an even greater personal growth over the years.

She shuffled through the papers on her desk and grabbed four of them.

"Perhaps this is a bit egotistical of me, but I'd love it if you guys read some of the things that I've worked on."

They all gladly agreed to read some of the things she had written. Jazz handed each of them a piece of paper with either a poem or a short story written on it. They read through them while Jazz sat and watched attentively for their responses.

On Aaron's piece of paper was a poem about two girls walking together through a cherry blossom park at midnight while surrounded by cicadas. He was impressed by her writing talent. Although short, the poem was replete with clever wordplay and evocative imagery. Many of the lines were oblique and seemed to have a double meaning to them, but the poem as a whole was still accessible enough for him to understand and be absorbed by.

"This is really good," he told her. "How do you come up with this stuff?"

"Thank you," she replied. "As for how I come up with my words, it all depends. Often times, I get a vision of something and start putting it down to paper. A lot of my writings come from things I've personally experienced, or are at least inspired by them."

Aaron stood up and handed the poem back to her. "So was this one based on something that really happened?" He sat back down next to the others.

Jazz held the poem in her hands and skimmed through it with a faint smile on her face. "Oh, yes, this one has some autobiographical elements. I used to have a friend who I'd go on midnight walks through the park with. Something about being surrounded by cherry blossoms under the moonlight was always so magical to us." She stared at the poem with warmth in her eyes. "Those are fond memories. Of course, we were never relentlessly attacked by cicadas on our walks like in the poem. That was more of a metaphor."

"Oh, is that what happened in the poem?" Aaron replied sheepishly. "I didn't really understand some of the lines."

Jazz smirked. "Yeah, the cicadas eventually annoy the pair to the point that they stop going on those walks." She placed the poem back onto her desk. "Maybe my writings can be a bit too esoteric and pretentious for their own good, but it wouldn't be poetry if you could understand all of it the first time around; it would just be prose."

"Do you still go on late night walks in real life?" Aaron asked her.

Jazz lowered her eyes. "No. Not with her, at least. We split apart some time ago. In that aspect, the poem is accurate to real events."

Liz looked up from the piece of paper she was reading. "Oh, I remember that girl. Why'd you guys stop hanging out, anyway? I thought you two were pretty close."

"We were, but…" Jazz paused to find the right words to articulate her explanation. "Let's just say that a rift formed in between us that couldn't be mended. We have no ill feelings towards each other, but there's a reason our relationship with each other had to end. Let's just leave it at that."

Liz respected Jazz's request and didn't ask for further clarification. The rest of the group finished reading the papers they were given and handed them back to Jazz who placed them with the rest of the pile on her desk.

"You're really talented," Gum told her. "You should put your work out there. This stuff needs to be seen."

"Thank you. I'm currently working on a novel and I'm hoping to get it published, but we'll see what happens. Success doesn't always come to those who deserve it." Jazz caught herself slightly too late and became apologetic. "Oh, there I go being pretentious again."

"No, I know exactly how you feel," Gum replied.

There was a pause in the conversation which Kon saw as an opportunity to mention his plan to Jazz.

"Hey Jazz, did you hear that the Garage is gonna get demolished?"

Gum resisted the urge to slap her palm across her forehead. She knew that he'd eventually bring up the Garage to Jazz, but not so bluntly.

Jazz replied, "I believe I heard something about that, yeah. It's remarkable that it took them this long, don't you think?"

"Well, I was wondering if you'd be interested in helping us save it from being destroyed. You were invaluable when it came to taking down Gouji all those years ago, so you'd be a major help here, too."

Jazz gave him a look of confusion. "What? Why are you guys trying to preserve that old dump?"

"Because," Kon attempted to explain, "we've all got great memories of the place. I'd just hate to see it go, you know? I feel like if it were demolished I'd feel a little bit empty inside, like something important to me is lost forever and can never be replaced."

Jazz shook her head. "Kon, this may sound insensitive but that 'thing' you're feeling is nothing but emotional baggage. It's been years since any of us have had a good reason—or any reason at all—to care for that place. Those who incessantly cling to the past never learn to do without it."

"I'm not incessantly clinging to the past," Kon retorted. "I've totally moved on from the days of skating and spraying graffiti, but… the Garage is special. It's a memento of one of the most important stages of our lives."

Jazz chuckled under her breath. "If you want a memento, write a poem; it'll last longer and be a far more romanticized reminder of the past than the forced conservation of that old decrepit place."

Liz interjected herself into the discussion. "I dunno, Jazz," she said, "I think your viewpoint is a bit too cold. I get the same wistful feeling that Kon does whenever I think about the Garage. Maybe it doesn't make much sense, but a lot of the things humans feel don't make much sense! We're a strange and complex species, you know? So what good will it do if we ignore our feelings? Kon and I are passionate about this, and whether it's crazy or not we still think that trying to save the Garage is worth a shot."

Jazz reclined in her chair and shrugged. "Fair enough. I doubt anything I say could stop you guys, but I've laid out my reasons for why I have no interest in being a part of whatever it is you guys intend to do."

The light in the room suddenly dimmed as the clouds outside rolled in and blocked out the sun. Jazz got up from her seat and finally turned on the floor lamp in the corner of the room to properly illuminate the apartment. This helped to ease the tension in the room. She sat back down and started a different topic of conversation.

The group stayed at her apartment for a while longer, but Kon's spirits were slightly deflated after her dismissal of his proposal to save the Garage. He promised himself that he wouldn't let doubters like Kodi faze him, but he was relying on her to come up with a strategy to save the Garage, and without her on board a major blow was dealt to his mission. Still, he appreciated Liz coming to his defense and was glad to have her on his side; her star power could prove valuable to their plan and help bring in some outside support. Hopefully Combo would prove to be a valuable asset as well.


	5. Collaboration

**Chapter 5 – Collaboration**

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and Aaron and Kat were spending it lounging in their apartment. They were watching TV on the couch when they heard a knock at the door.

"That's probably Riko," Kat guessed.

Aaron stood up and walked towards the door. He looked through the peephole to see who was on the other side.

"Yep, it's her."

He opened the door and let Riko into the apartment.

"Hey guys," she said as she began kicking off her shoes. "What've you been up to?"

"Oh, not much," Kat replied. "Just spending our Sunday doing nothing."

Riko placed her shoes to the side of the entrance before walking in and sitting down next to Kat. Aaron closed the door before joining both of them on the couch, sitting in between Kat and Riko.

"What about you?" Kat asked Riko. "Still got writer's block?"

"I think I'm starting to break out of it," Riko answered. "Last night I forced myself to sit down and write. I managed to come up with a few good riffs, but I couldn't flesh them out into full songs. Still, it's progress."

"Let's hear what you've got then." Kat gestured towards her acoustic guitar in the corner of the room.

Riko sighed in reluctance. "Fine, hand it to me."

Kat stood up and handed her guitar to Riko. Aaron shifted himself away from her to give her more room to play. She grabbed the guitar pick from in between the strings and manually tuned the guitar.

"I keep telling you not to leave the pick in the strings," she badgered Kat.

"I've been doing it for years," Kat countered, "and nothing bad has happened. At worst, I'll have to buy a new pick. Big deal."

Riko shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever, so here's what I came up with."

She played a few short riffs in succession, giving a short introduction to each one, while Aaron and Kat watched and listened. Once she presented the last of her material, she asked the others for their thoughts.

"I really liked that second one,' Kat said. "It's got potential."

"Did you write any words yet?" Aaron asked Riko. "Or have any idea of what the songs should be about?"

"I couldn't think of any lyrics," she told them, "but I want the next album to be more of a concept album. I want it to tell a story and to have a message. The lyrics need to be deeper and more meaningful than the stuff we've usually been coming up with."

Kat raised her palms and asked, "Well, what's the concept?"

Riko grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, about that…"

Kat groaned and rolled her eyes.

"I've got an idea of a story I could tell," Riko continued, "but I don't really know how to go about it through song… or if I even want to tell it."

"Why are you being so cryptic?" Kat enquired.

"We can always help you out with the writing," Aaron suggested. "We're a band, after all."

"Let's be real here, Aaron," Riko said bluntly. "None of us are that good at coming up with lyrics."

"Hey!" Kat exclaimed, insulted by Riko's assertion. "What's wrong with our lyrics?"

"I mean, they're serviceable, but I want this next album to be special and that includes lyrics that go beyond what we've ever done before. Even though I know what I want, I still have trouble articulating my own thoughts."

Aaron recalled his meeting with Jazz yesterday and how he was impressed by her writing abilities. Her poetry didn't exactly fit with the kind of music that they typically played, but he figured she was worth mentioning to Riko.

"Hey Riko," he began, "do you remember Jazz from the GGs?"

Riko was confused by the unexpected mention. "Uhh, yeah."

"Well, I met up with her for the first time in years the other day and she's big into writing. She writes her own poems and stories and stuff, and she's really good going by what she showed me. Maybe she'd be willing to help you write the lyrics."

Riko furrowed her brow. "I don't know if that'd work."

"I'm telling you, she's really good."

"Maybe she is, but how can I know for sure if I've never even seen any examples of her work?"

"I could get her to send me some of the stuff she's written."

"Don't do that. I barely even know her, I'm not gonna ask her to randomly show me her poetry."

"Don't worry," Aaron assured Riko, "she likes showing people her work. She's the one who asked me to read her poem in the first place."

Riko's subtly-changing expression hinted that she was beginning to show interest. "Was it that good?"

"Yeah, it was really… interesting."

Riko frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Aaron pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Look, I'm just gonna ask her to send me some poems so you can judge for yourself."

He began typing out a text message to Jazz, and Riko figured it was pointless to object. She handed the acoustic guitar back to Kat who returned it to its place in the corner of the room. After he finished writing his message, Aaron hit send and placed his phone on the table in front of them.

Riko looked at Kat and asked her in a caustic tone, "So, you got your outfit picked out yet?"

Kat ignored her sarcasm and answered the question straight. "Yeah, I bought a new dress a few days ago because one of my old ones got a rip in it. I'm gonna debut it at the show."

Riko groaned. "Why can't you just dress normally like the rest of us?"

"Why do you keep complaining about how I dress?" Kat retorted.

"Because you stick out like a sore thumb when you're the only person on stage wearing a Lolita outfit."

Kat flippantly replied, "Well, maybe you guys should dress up, too."

Riko snickered. "Yeah, try convincing Aaron to wear something stupid like that."

"I'm fine wearing a shirt and jeans, thank you very much," he reacted. "I still like Kat's outfits though."

"Of course _you'd_ say that," Riko remarked. "You're the kind of horny guy those outfits are meant to pander to."

"Hey!" Kat shouted in anger. "I wear those dresses because _I_ like them, not because anybody else does."

Riko chuckled to herself. "Keep telling yourself that."

"What, you think I'm lying?" Kat fumed.

Riko sneered, "I think you subconsciously enjoy it when other men ogle you in your cute dresses."

Kat was disgusted by the accusation. "Aaron's the only man I care about. You're just jealous because no guys have their eyes on you."

"Good," Riko responded with crossed arms. "I'm happier that way."

While Kat and Riko continued to fight, Aaron's phone suddenly vibrated on the table. Aaron picked it up and looked at the screen; he got a reply from Jazz.

"Hey, Jazz just texted me back," he said aloud.

Kat and Riko stopped their arguing and turned towards him.

"She said that she'll send me some of her poetry when she has some free time later today." He looked up from his phone and gave Riko a wry smile. "Now you _have_ to read them."

She stared at him blankly for a moment before finally relenting with a sigh. "Fine, I might as well at this point. At the very least, they might provide some inspiration."

Riko turned back towards Kat only to find that she had already stormed out of the room. Aaron's interjection seemed to have diffused the situation and prevented it from getting worse, although there was clearly still some unresolved tension between the two of them. Aaron was just happy to have stopped all the yelling.

* * *

The lights that adorned the wrestling venue flashed in sequence against the darkening evening sky and made the building stick out against the others that surrounded it. Kon and Yoyo could spot the arena's blinking lights from down the street as they approached it on foot. The building was larger than Kon expected for the venue of an indie wrestling show, although he realized he had no idea what the typical size of an indie wrestling venue was. Next to the entrance were signs advertising the show that was about to start. Kon and Yoyo stepped through the entrance and walked inside.

The lobby was crowded with excited wrestling fans. Kon didn't predict he'd see so many people attending the show. He was completely oblivious to wrestling culture, although Yoyo had given him a quick rundown on their way to the arena. None of that stuff mattered much to him though—he just came to see Combo.

They both waited in line to pass through the turnstiles. They had purchased their tickets online prior to coming to the stadium, thus avoiding the longer lines for the ticket counter machines.

"Are there usually this many people here?" Kon asked Yoyo.

"Yeah, but this is nothing compared to the major promotions."

"I can imagine."

"I've only been to those bigger shows a few times before," Yoyo mentioned. "Usually I just watch them from home."

"Is Liz into wrestling as much as you are?"

"Not really. Sometimes she'll watch it with me when I have it on at home and she'll even get into it once in a while, reacting to the big bumps and cheering for her favourite wrestlers."

"Has she ever gone to a live show with you?"

"Nah, she's not _that_ into it."

"Really? Not even to see Combo?"

"She's seen him a few times outside of his shows. She even invited him out to lunch once."

Kon smirked. "Is that how she always greets people who she hasn't seen in a while?"

"Kinda, yeah. I ain't complaining though: I like eating out."

Kon glanced at Yoyo's portly figure.

"Unless it's not hamburgers or pizza, right?" he quipped.

Yoyo flashed an acknowledging grin. "Hey, I'm a picky eater."

He could have fooled Kon.

They reached the end of the line. A man with a portable ticket scanner scanned the ticket codes on their phones before leading them through the turnstiles. They began walking down a long hallway that led to the seating area. On one side of the corridor were posters advertising upcoming shows at the arena, including concerts and martial arts events. On the other side, large glass windows gave them a peek of the wrestling ring and surrounding stands. Kon stared out the windows as he walked. The arena looked like it could hold close to two thousand people, but only about half of the seats were currently filled.

"Hold on," Yoyo said as he suddenly turned around and walked back in the opposite direction.

Kon stopped and turned around to look at Yoyo. "What?"

He watched as Yoyo walked over to a group of vending machines and pulled out his phone. He paused to skim his options before pressing a button on one of the machines and holding his phone up against the payment reader. The machine beeped and dispensed a bag of chips. He went over to an adjacent machine and repeated the same process to buy himself a bottle of soda. He carried them in his arms as he regrouped with Kon.

"I ain't sharing, so if you want some snacks you'd better buy some yourself."

Kon let out a brief chuckle. "No, I'm good."

The pair continued on their way towards the seating area.

"So, how's Combo these days?" Kon asked Yoyo, trying to strike up some more conversation.

"Pretty good, if you ask me," Yoyo replied. "He loves wrestling, and how can you be sad when you've got your dream job?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Do you know if he's kept in touch with any of the others?"

"Yeah, he's still friends with Garam apparently."

"Oh, cool."

Garam was one of the few Rudies who went by his real name. He was quite snarky and belligerent, often getting himself into unnecessary conflict with other gangs. Despite his faults though, he cared about his fellow GGs. It wasn't too much of a surprise that he was still friends with Combo, but it certainly made Kon's mission easier.

Kon and Yoyo entered the inner arena and descended down the steps to their seats. They sat down while two professional commentators sitting at a desk in front of the stands recapped the previous few shows for the audience.

"So, you met with Garam, too?" Kon asked Yoyo.

"No, just Combo."

"Really? Why?"

Yoyo shrugged. "Garam's never at any of the wrestling shows I go to."

"So? You said that Liz met with Combo outside of his shows. Why haven't you asked Combo for Garam's phone number or something?"

"I don't talk to Combo that much either, to be honest."

"Why not?"

"Because…" Yoyo seemed to struggle with forming his answer. "We don't really have much in common, you know?"

Kon didn't buy it. "But you're a wrestling fan and he's a wrestler. That's not enough for you?"

Yoyo looked away from Kon. "I dunno, man."

The event announcer entered the wrestling ring with a microphone in his hand. Kon wanted to prod Yoyo for more answers, but he was interrupted by the announcer beginning to speak.

"Introducing from Tokyo, weighing in at three hundred and forty pounds, Combo!"

Loud entrance music began blaring over the speakers as Kon and Yoyo watched their old friend walk out from backstage. Yoyo and the rest of the crowd cheered for him whereas Kon could only sit and stare in awe. Although he had grown in mass, Combo was still a familiar sight. And yet, there he was, walking into a room with hundreds of cheering fans. For a moment, Kon felt like he was in someone else's dream.

While Combo approached the ring, the commentators formally opened the show.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Japan Banzai Wrestling. We're here in Chuo, Tokyo for the first event of the month. Combo is heading to the ring for our first match which is scheduled for one fall."

"Combo has been steadily rising the ranks, having won six matches in a row. His competitor this time though could give him some trouble and may even break his winning streak."

Combo entered the ring and began playing to the crowd, which only stoked their already loud cheers. Kon was so transfixed by his first sight of Combo in ten years that he didn't even notice when the announcer introduced the other wrestler to the ring. Before he knew it, the bell rang and the match began.

* * *

The faint hum of distant cicadas could be heard beneath the cool breeze of nighttime air behind the arena where Kon and Yoyo stood waiting after the show. A single lamp above the backdoor provided them with a haven of light amidst the surrounding darkness.

Kon shoved his hands into his pockets as he shivered in the cold.

"How long are we gonna have to wait?" he asked Yoyo.

"It takes a while for the wrestlers to head out after the show," Yoyo replied.

"Why couldn't we just wait inside, then?"

"Because we could miss him."

"Well, it's been half an hour. I'm freezing, man."

"You're the one who wanted to see him again."

Kon muttered under his breath, "Yeah, I know…"

He shuffled his feet as the shrill singing of the cicadas seemed to grow louder in the background.

"Why are there still cicadas buzzing around?" he wondered aloud. "Summer is long gone."

"It don't really feel like it though," Yoyo casually remarked.

Kon gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about? We're halfway into autumn."

"Yeah, but summer puts me in a certain cheery mood, and it still feels like that." Yoyo looked down at the ground sheepishly. "Heh, it's kinda weird, but I still associate fall with going back to school. But since I don't go to school—and I haven't for nearly a decade—that carefree summer feeling carries over for the first few months of fall."

Yoyo looked up to see Kon staring blankly at him.

"I know, it's weird," Yoyo stated.

"No," Kon replied, "it's weird that I kinda get how you feel."

"Really?"

"Yeah, except for me I associate autumn with dreariness."

"Why?"

"I dunno, it just feels that way. The air is cooler, the trees lose their leaves, and the sky always seems to be overcast. It's just not a very pleasant season, and people seem to internalize that and integrate it into their behaviour; they act coldly towards one another."

Yoyo shrugged. "People seem to act the same to me."

"Maybe it just me, then," Kon murmured.

Suddenly, the backdoor opened and the man they were waiting for stepped out carrying a duffle bag and wearing a windbreaker jacket. Combo looked down at Yoyo in surprise.

"Oh, hey man. Were you waiting here for me?"

Combo reached out to shake Yoyo's hand. Yoyo put his hand out for it to be swallowed by Combo's immense grip.

"Yeah, and guess who I brought with me." Yoyo gestured towards Kon.

Combo let go of Yoyo's hand and turned towards Kon. It took a moment for him to recognize who he was looking at, but once he did a large grin formed on his face.

"No way! Corn? How's it been, man?"

"It's been good," Kon replied with a smile as big as Combo's. "It's great to see you again. I had no idea you were a pro wrestler."

Combo laughed. "I take it you're not a wrestling fan, then. What have you been up to?"

"I'm a software developer, but that's not as interesting. My real name is Kon, by the way."

"Oh, yeah. It's weird that we haven't known each other's real names for so long. Hell, Yoyo still won't tell me his real name." Combo nudged Yoyo with his shoulder.

"Hey, shut up," Yoyo replied sardonically.

"What's your real name, then?" Kon asked Combo.

Combo chuckled sheepishly. "Heh, I know we go way back but I'm gonna have to ask you to keep calling me by my ring name. I have an alter-ego I need to maintain, even outside the ring. But you're used to calling me Combo anyway, so it's no big deal."

"Yeah, it's fine by me," Kon replied.

Combo looked up at the sky. "It's pretty late right now and I'm kinda tired after that match. I think I'm gonna head home and sleep. Sorry we can't hang out more today, but we should definitely find time some other day to catch up."

"Actually," Kon began, "I mainly came here because I wanted to ask you about something."

"Yeah?"

"Did you hear that the city is planning on demolishing the Garage?" Kon asked him.

"No, I had no idea," Combo answered. "Actually, I'm kinda surprised it hasn't been demolished yet. It's seriously still up?"

"Yeah, but not for long. I want to try and stop the demolition though, so I've been going around and recruiting all the old GGs to help. I already got Yoyo, Rhyth, and Beat to promise to help."

"Oh yeah, Beat!" Memories of his old friend came rushing back to him. "Well sure, I dunno what you're planning to do but I'll support you guys."

"Yeah, I don't know either. I haven't really thought of what we _can_ do."

"Well, that's kinda important, don't you think?" Combo joked.

"I know, I know, but I'll think of something and let you know when I do."

"Cool. Hey, I'll give you my cell number."

Kon pulled out his phone and entered Combo's phone number into his contacts list as it was recited to him.

"I've got one more question for you," Kon said to Combo. "Have you kept in touch with any of the other GGs? Yoyo told me that you're still friends with Garam."

"Yeah, I still hang out with him and Ashi… I mean, Clutch. Well, his real name is Ashi."

"Really? How are they both doing?"

"Well, Garam's doing well but Ashi's always getting himself into trouble. The guy got fired from his job because of a real stupid stunt he pulled. Dude's got a freaking criminal record, too."

Kon's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Well, it's mostly minor stuff, but still. He hasn't started acting like an adult yet. He even still uses his old pair of skates from when we were Rudies. Can you believe that?"

"Wow, that's… huh." Kon was surprised that Clutch seemed to be the only one out of the group so far to still be into skating. "So, he and Garam are the only other two you've kept in touch with over the years?"

"Well, we used to hang out with Boogie, but she went to study overseas and we eventually lost contact with her."

"Really? That sucks."

Combo began to speak in a soft and flat voice. "Yeah. She said that she'd come back to Japan once she graduated, but that was years ago and its not like she doesn't know how to find us."

"Damn. I wonder what happened to her."

"Same here, man. But hey, I'll give you Garam and Ashi's numbers so you can get in contact with them, too."

Combo proceeded to tell Kon their phone numbers as he inputted them into his phone's contacts list. In just one day, he regained contact with three of his old friends.

"Awesome," Kon said to Combo. "Thanks, man. I'll be sure to hit them up. Actually, do you think I'd be able to visit one of them today?"

Combo scratched the back of his head. "I dunno, man. It's pretty late. Garam's probably still up, but he's gotta work tomorrow morning. And Ashi… well, it's probably best that you don't visit his place on such short notice."

"I could always try calling them to ask," Kon suggested.

"Sure, go ahead and call Garam," Combo replied. "But put me on the phone. He probably wouldn't believe it if you started talking to him out of the blue without any explanation."

"True."

Kon dialed Garam's number and handed his phone to Combo as it began to ring. After a few seconds, the ringing stopped and a voice came on at the other end of the line.

"Hello?" the voice answered.

"Hey, Garam! It's me, Combo."

"Oh, hey. Where are you calling me from? Your name didn't come up on my phone."

"Yeah, I'm using someone else's phone. Guess who I'm with right now."

"I dunno, who?"

"Remember Corn?"

"Corn's? From the GGs? Shit, tell him I said hi."

"Why don't you tell him yourself? Here he is."

Combo handed Kon's phone back to him. He put it up to his ear.

"Hey, Garam."

"Shit, man. How you doing?"

"Great. It's been a while."

"Yeah, no shit! How the hell did you guys meet?"

"It's kinda a long story. I was wondering if I could come over to your house right now. I can give you the gist of it then."

"Right now? Ehh, it's kinda late. How about tomorrow afternoon instead?"

"Sure, that's fine."

"This is your phone, right? I'll text you my address."

"Yeah, it is. Thanks, man. I'll see you then."

"You'd better! Let me know before you come, got it? I gotta get ready for your arrival."

"Sure thing. Bye."

Kon ended the call. Moments later, he received a text message from Garam with his home address. He stuffed his phone back into his pocket and looked over at Combo.

"Awesome. Thanks again, man."

"No problem," Combo replied. "Anyway, I'm gonna head home. You've got my number though, so hit me up anytime."

"You know it. See ya."

"Yeah, I'll see you two around." He waved goodbye as he began to walk off towards the parking lot.

"Later!" Yoyo shouted at him.

Kon looked towards Yoyo. "So, what do you wanna do now?"

Yoyo yawned. "Honestly, I think I'm gonna head home, too."

"Seriously? You don't wanna hang out some more?"

"I'm tired right now. Besides, we can hang out any time."

"I… guess."

Yoyo gave Kon a light pat on the back to get him to start walking. "Come on, we can split up at the station."

Kon shoved his hands back into his pockets and the two of them left the glow of the lamplight and began their trek back towards the train station.

The pair didn't talk much on their stroll. Kon was lost in his own thoughts, although they all pertained to Yoyo. It bothered him that there seemed to be a limit on how much time Yoyo wanted to spend out with his friends. Did he even still consider them his friends at all? Friends usually enjoy spending time with each other, but so far Yoyo only used them as an excuse to go out for lunch and to see a wrestling show. At least Kon was reuniting with his old friends for a good cause.

* * *

Riko climbed the dingy stairwell of Jazz's apartment building. The paint on the walls was peeling off and there was an off-putting smell that she couldn't quite place. It was depressing to think that anyone would be stuck living in such a run-down building in modern Tokyo. What kind of financial situation did Jazz have to be in to be living somewhere like that? Riko never would have wasted her time visiting if Jazz's works didn't show such promise.

Riko approached Jazz's apartment door and knocked three times. She heard a ruffling sound on the other side of the door before Jazz opened it.

"Hey," Jazz greeted her. "You're Riko?"

"Yeah."

Jazz smiled. "I still recognize you a bit from back in the day. Come on in."

Jazz held the door open for Riko as she entered her apartment. The interior thankfully seemed to be in better shape than the rest of the building. She took off her shoes and placed them to the side of the entrance before walking further into the apartment. Jazz closed the door and turned around to see Riko standing aimlessly in the middle of the room with her coat in her hands.

"Sit wherever you'd like."

Riko scanned the room for a chair; the only one in the room was turned towards Jazz's desk. She pulled it out and faced it the other way as Jazz took a seat on her own bed.

"It's been a while since we've last seen each other," Riko said as she put her coat on the backrest of the chair and sat down. "So, how've you been?"

"I've been managing," Jazz answered. "It isn't easy being an aspiring author."

Riko struggled to think of something to say. She hadn't seen Jazz in nearly a decade, and even back then they weren't what she would call friends. She turned to look down at the papers scattered all over Jazz's desk, each of them with paragraphs upon paragraphs of handwritten text. "You must write a lot."

"I do," Jazz responded. "It's my life's passion. I'll admit, I was a bit surprised by your request for some of my poetry. I'd only met Aaron the other day and he's already helped get my work out there." She laughed meagrely to herself. "So, you said that you're working on a musical album?"

"Yeah, that's why I wanted to read your stuff," Riko replied. "I'm looking for a lyricist that can do my songs justice. Not that I actually have any of the songs written yet, but I was hoping we could collaborate on them together. You'll be credited and paid for your work, of course."

"Well, I wouldn't call myself a lyricist in that sense, but I suppose we could help each other out."

"Great. I'm not sure if you're the kind of person who likes heavy rock music though."

"Not really, but that won't be a problem. I enjoy challenging myself with unfamiliar tasks, and I always put my best into everything I do. I wouldn't want something that I'd put no effort into to become the thing that defines me as an artist."

"That's good to hear. And yeah, I'm trying to experiment with my music, too. I've just got a case of writer's block. I'm sure you know that feeling."

Jazz grinned. "All too well. Why don't you look at more of my works?" She gestured towards the papers on her desk.

Riko grabbed a few of the pages and flipped through them. "You write this stuff out? Why not type them on a computer?"

"I find it easier to write with a pencil," Jazz answered. "The words come flowing out better that way, I feel. The only works I type out on my laptop are my novels, but I still tend to write my story notes on paper."

"Oh, you've written novels?"

"I've _worked_ on writing many novels over the years, that's for sure. Most of them are left unfinished since I become unsatisfied with them, but there's one that I'm currently still working on and have high hopes for."

"What's it about?"

"It's about a radio broadcaster during the Second World War whose program features thinly-veiled propaganda targeted at the enemy forces in an attempt to lower their morale. After playing so much of their foreign music on her show and learning about their society however, she begins to admire their culture."

"That's interesting. So it's a historical fiction?"

"Yes, but it's based on non-fiction. There were a few women who did this during the war, one more famous than the others, and in that individual's case its not agreed upon by historians whether she was intentionally trying to lower enemy spirits or if she was actually on their side all along. Nevertheless, the U.S. soldiers had a name for these women: Tokyo Rose."

"You seem to know a lot about the subject."

Jazz smirked. "I embellish on it a bit in my story, but you're right. There's a bit of a fascination I have with Japan's history. Its more modern history, to be exact. I have no interest in those old samurai stories and whatnot."

"That's so cool," Riko remarked. Ideas were already beginning to brew in her head. "Do you know any other neat stories like that?"

Jazz stood up from her bed. "Why don't we take a walk outside and continue this conversation there. I could use some time out of this stuffy apartment."

"Yeah, sure."

Riko got up and walked towards the door. She put on her shoes and coat as Jazz grabbed her jacket from the closet. Once Jazz put her own shoes on, she opened the front door for them.

"After you."

Riko stepped out of the apartment first, followed by Jazz who shut off the lights and closed the door behind them.


	6. Progress

**Chapter 6 – Progress**

Kon had an unusually long day at work, or at least, it felt much longer than usual. It was probably because he couldn't stop thinking about his planned meetings with Garam and Clutch—or Ashi as he was still learning to call him—after work. He even called both of them during his lunch break to reintroduce himself and explain how he got their phone numbers. They were both still a bit bemused by the whole situation, but nevertheless they eagerly awaited meeting with him later in the day. Garam's house would be his first stop.

After taking a train to an unfamiliar neighbourhood, Kon continued towards Garam's house on foot with his laptop bag still strapped over his shoulder. He stared down at his phone as he followed the exact directions to the address that Garam sent him. They led him to a modestly sized home in the middle of a quiet residential district. Kon assumed that Garam lived alone, so he found it a bit odd that he would have an entire house all to himself, especially in such a nice neighbourhood.

Kon shoved his phone into his pocket as he walked up to the doorstep. He rang the doorbell and silently waited for Garam to answer the door. While waiting, he began meditating on what he could do to stop the demolition of the Garage. There was no way that he'd be able to stage a mass protest again, so he'd have to think a little bit smaller. Perhaps a petition would work; they're civil, they follow a proper procedure, and at times they can be just as effective as a protest.

Garam finally came to the door and opened it. A large grin appeared on both of their faces as they saw each other for the first time in years.

Garam appeared to have kept himself in good shape over the years. Even while wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, Kon could tell that he had built some muscle mass over the years while still appearing a bit lean.

"Hey Garam," Kon greeted him.

"Kon!" Garam gleefully exclaimed. "How ya doing, man? Come on in."

He reached out and gave Kon a friendly pat on the arm and welcomed him into his home. Kon closed the door behind himself and placed his shoes to the side of the entrance. He walked into Garam's living room and scanned his surroundings. The cozy furniture combined with scattered posters of famous athletes created a slightly discordant ambiance.

"Man, your place looks better than mine," Kon remarked. "What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a crane operator," Garam answered. "I mean, I do more than just that, but I keep it simple when I tell other people; they usually get the picture just from that. And yeah, it's a decent living." He walked over to the kitchen. "You drink? I can get you a beer."

"Nah, I'm good."

Kon took off his laptop bag and sat down on the couch in the living room, placing his bag gently down next to the coffee table in front of him. Garam opened his fridge and grabbed himself a bottle of beer. He brought it with him back to the living room and sat down next to Kon.

"But hey," Garam continued as he cracked open the bottle, "you make good money too, right? You said you were a software developer." He three the bottle cap onto the table and took a swig of his beer.

"Yeah," Kon replied, "enough money to support me and Gum, and hopefully a kid."

Garam nearly choked on the liquid still in his mouth. "You guys are having a kid? That's great, man!"

"No, not yet, but we've been trying." Kon looked down at the floor and became soft-spoken. "It looks like Gum might not be able to have kids though."

Garam gave Kon a worried look. "Why? What's wrong?"

Kon shook his head and replied distantly, "I dunno, I don't really wanna talk about it."

"What? You can't leave me hanging like that!"

Kon looked back up at Garam. "Honestly, we don't know what's wrong; we haven't gone to a doctor yet. It could be me or it could be her. Hell, there might not even be a problem. We could just be having terrible luck. Terrible terrible luck."

"Shit, man," Garam said sympathetically. "You two should really get yourselves checked out soon."

"Yeah, I know," Kon mumbled.

Garam grabbed a coaster from overtop the table and placed his beer down onto it. "I hope everything turns out alright for you guys."

Kon softly smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate it. Now, let's talk about something else."

Garam relaxed a bit. "Sure. We've got lots to catch up on, after all."

Kon tapped his fingers together. "There's actually something in particular that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Well, it's not just you and Combo and Ashi who I've been meeting with," Kon explained. "I've actually been trying to meet with all the old GGs. It's been surprisingly easy to find most of them, but I haven't found them all yet."

Garam's face suddenly lit up. "Did you find Boogie?"

"No, actually," Kon replied. "She's the only one who I haven't yet."

Garam responded with a blank expression and a deadpan voice, "Oh. Well, good luck finding her."

"Anyway, have you heard that the Garage is gonna be demolished?" Kon asked him.

Garam chuckled. "You kidding? The company I work for are in charge of demolishing it."

Kon's eyes widened and he sat up straight. "Seriously? Can you try convincing them not to do it?"

Garam snorted. " _What?_ That's not how things work. Besides, the plans have already been finalized. Even if my company didn't take the job, some other company would end up doing it." He continued staring at Kon and noticed an almost panicked look on his face. "Why do you wanna stop it, anyway?"

"Because, man!" Kon exclaimed. "Remember all the good memories we have of that place? We can't let them die!"

"The memories aren't gonna die just because the place disappears, man. You're thinking crazy here."

Kon ignored his negativity. "There's gotta be something we can do, right? Like, a petition or something."

"Even if a petition would work, there's no way you'd get enough signatures for the city to even consider it. You're the only one who wants to save it, man."

"That's not true. There's also Combo, Yoyo, L—"

Garam interrupted Kon with a sudden burst of laughter. "That's why you've been meeting up with everyone? To get them to help you save the Garage? That's pathetic, man. And really, that's all you got? Just the GGs? That's what, ten people? Get real, man."

Kon slapped his fists against his lap and raised his voice. "I don't care, I'll try everything. The Garage means a lot to me, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to try and save it."

"Have you even been to the Garage recently?" Garam asked with a bemused smile.

Garam's question made Kon pause. "Well, not _recently_ ," he admitted.

"What about since the gang split up?"

"N-No, but I—"

"Then what the hell, man! You can't be _that_ attached if you haven't even visited the place in the last decade!"

"I don't know what you want me to tell you," Kon said in exasperation. "Yeah, I haven't been to the Garage in a long time, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about the place. I'm not lying to you when I say that I wanna try and save it, and I ain't the only one who feels the same way."

Garam sighed. "Listen Kon," he spoke calmly, "I understand that you have an attachment to the place, but you gotta move on eventually."

"I won't," Kon declared with determination, "not if I still have a chance at stopping the demolition."

Garam threw his hands up in frustration. "You don't though, that's the point! I can't believe I even have to tell you this." He then placed them gently onto Kon's lap. "Not everything lasts forever, man. I know it's clichéd, but you gotta learn to move on. If you don't, you're just gonna get really bummed out when it finally gets demolished. And it _will_ get demolished, I can promise you that."

Kon replied with sarcasm, "I really appreciate your support, Garam."

With that, Garam's calmness quickly disappeared. "Man, don't give me that snark! I'm telling you the truth. Would you rather I lie to you? Want me to say that you can do anything you set your mind to? That's even more clichéd! I'm not gonna bullshit you just to help you feel good."

Kon was too irritated to say anything, or to even look Garam in the eyes. His hands gripped the couch tightly.

"We're both adults here, right?" Garam continued, his voice beginning to lower. "I'm not trying to piss you off. We're still friends, after all. I just want you to think realistically here. Do you really think you have a shot at protecting the Garage from being demolished?"

Kon finally uttered, "We stopped Gouji, didn't we?"

" _We_ didn't," Garam told him, "the whole city did. And you don't have the whole city on your side this time."

Kon chuckled almost arrogantly. "That's what Gum said."

Garam grabbed his bottle of beer and lifted it up to his chin. "Well maybe you should listen to your wife then."

* * *

Aaron knocked on Riko's front door.

Earlier in the day, he received a text from her saying that she decided to collaborate with Jazz on their next studio album. They planned to meet up at her house after Jazz's work shift ended to brainstorm ideas. Aaron was a bit surprised, both by how Jazz actually agreed to collaborate with Riko and by how they'd already begun working in earnest. He didn't think that his simple suggestion to Riko would progress this far. That's why he chose to visit her to see how things were going.

Riko answered the door.

"Hey, come on in," she casually greeted him. "Jazz is sitting in the band room."

Aaron closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes. He walked with Riko down the hallway towards the room where Jazz was waiting—the band room as they called it. It wasn't anything special; just an extra room in Riko's house designated for writing and practicing songs in as well as for storing their instruments. It was the only place outside of the recording studio where the band could practice their music in peace, although Riko would still get complaints from neighbours on occasion. She always kept a large supply of music paper in the room too, in case musical inspiration ever struck her.

"Kat didn't come with you?" Riko asked Aaron.

"No, she didn't want to."

Riko shrugged. "Still pissed about yesterday, I guess."

They both entered the band room where a patient Jazz was sitting alone on a couch. On the desk in the corner of the room were scattered sheets of paper, indicating either a productive day or an aggravating one.

"Hi, Aaron," Jazz said with a slight wave. "How've you been?"

Riko sat down next to her while Aaron pulled up a stool from behind the desk.

"I've been alright," he replied. "So, how's the songwriting coming along?"

"Great," Riko answered enthusiastically. "We already banged out our first song."

"Already? You guys have only been working for, like, two hours."

"I know, it happened so quickly. I was just sort of meandering on my guitar at first," Riko recapped as she turned to face Jazz, "but then we started talking about other stuff and Jazz said something that got a riff brewing in my head. I played it on my guitar and slowly came up with the rest of the song while Jazz improvised the lyrics."

"I didn't improvise anything," Jazz corrected her. "I lack the wits to do that. I merely came up with words that I felt flowed well with the music."

"Isn't that the exact same thing as improvising?" Aaron posited.

"I don't care what you want to call it," Riko interjected. "Whatever it is she did, it nailed exactly what I was going for."

"What were you going for?" Aaron enquired.

"Remember yesterday when I told you that I wanted our next album to have a central theme with a message?"

Aaron couldn't recall Riko's exact words on that day, but he knew that she wanted to take the album in a different direction. "Yeah, you said something like that."

"Well, I was telling Jazz what I wanted the album to be about and she instantly connected with it. She said that she'd already thought about the exact same concepts I was bringing up, too."

"Okay, so what's the concept?"

"Tokyo," Riko finally revealed to him. "The album's gonna be about Tokyo."

"More than just that," Jazz added. "Riko and I found that we have a common… _disinclination_ toward the city."

"Yeah," Riko continued. "They say that Gouji's resignation was the beginning of a new era for Tokyo, but even with him gone the city hasn't progressed as much as it should've. Not only that, but I'm sick of all the romanticism, not just for Tokyo but for the country as a whole. So many people—especially from other countries—are obsessed with our culture and think that we're the greatest country in the world, but we've got our fair share of problems that don't look like they're gonna be solved anytime soon."

"Isn't that true for every country?" Aaron argued.

"Yeah, but I want to explore that phenomenon in the context of Tokyo and Japan."

"So the album's just gonna be a collection of diss tracks against the city and country? No offence, but that's hardly a new concept for an album."

"It's not gonna be all hate," Riko elaborated. "I want the album to be very honest and fair, actually. There'll be songs that portray Tokyo in a positive light and others that portray it in a less-than-stellar light. It'll be a historical album, in a way: not just covering present Tokyo but also its rich history."

Jazz tilted her head. "You didn't mention anything about that."

"I know," Riko replied. "I've got a ton of ideas flowing in my head right now. I'm not sure what'll stick and what won't, but I wanted us to do a song about that Tokyo Rose story you told me yesterday."

Jazz hesitated before responding with apprehension, "We could, but I'm still planning on finishing my novel on my own time."

"Oh, I don't wanna rip your story off or anything," Riko assured her. "I just meant that I want to write songs about historical events like that. That stuff really fascinates me."

Aaron hadn't heard Riko speak so passionately and with such artful purpose about their music before. He could tell that she was enthusiastic about her newly-formed partnership with Jazz just by observing her expressive hand gestures while speaking and the energetic sound of her voice. Although he remained a bit unconvinced of her vision for their next album, he was at least glad that she was working with someone who could help foster her creativity better than he or Kat could. Kat in particular never showed as much dedication to the music-making craft as Riko always did. Aaron felt that if Riko were stuck working with just him and Kat, her songwriting skills would never reach their fullest potential. Maybe he was being too harsh on Kat, but his optimism for Riko's emerging talent trumped his concerns for his own girlfriend's feelings on the matter—not that he would ever admit that to her face. And sure, there was no way of knowing how fruitful these sessions with Jazz would actually be, but she seemed like their best bet for helping them reach greater creative and artistic heights with their music.

Riko stood up from the couch and walked over to the desk in the corner of the room to straighten out the mess of papers on top of it, separating the unused ones from those she had scribbled her song notes onto.

"Anyway, we've got plenty of time to talk about what themes the album should have," Jazz remarked. "I'm enjoying the songwriting process, myself."

"Have you ever tried it before?" Aaron asked her.

"Not at all," she told him. "Hand me a sheet of music and I wouldn't know what any of the symbols mean!" She laughed gently. "This is a completely new experience for me, but I like it. There's something about writing a song that's… _compelling_ , even if I'm mostly just writing the words."

"It's not like a song's lyrics aren't important to the song itself," Riko mentioned as she stored the now-organized papers into the desk's drawer.

"Of course not," Jazz concurred, "but coming up with them is a bit different from what I'm used to doing. It's certainly different from writing a short story."

"I figured it'd be pretty similar to writing a poem," Aaron presumed.

"In some ways, it is."

"Oh, by the way, Jazz," Riko suddenly recalled something as she walked back over to the others, "we'll be playing at a club in Dogenzaka tomorrow evening. You should come watch us."

"Sure," Jazz replied. "I've never actually heard any of your older songs before, so this could be my formal introduction to your band's music."

Riko smiled. "Awesome. I'll pick you up beforehand so you can ride with us to the venue. I hope you won't mind having to wait a few hours for the show to start." She turned to face Aaron. "Hey, didn't you say you were gonna invite some of your other old friends?"

"Yeah, Gum and Kon," Aaron answered. "I texted them and they said that they'll try to make it but they can't guarantee it. Work stuff, I guess."

"Let's hope they do make it then," Jazz said. "Should I dress up or is it not a formal show?"

Riko chuckled. "You can wear whatever you want, but I wouldn't wear anything fancy. Not that that ever stops Kat." She rolled her eyes as she sat back down on the couch. "You should see her, Jazz. She always wears these dumb cutesy outfits on stage. We're a freaking punk rock band, not a children's theatre act."

"Riko, cut it out," Aaron half-heartedly chided her. "You're always shitting on her outfits."

"That's because they're stupid," she retorted. "Don't you think so too?"

"No, I think they're… pretty cute." The word Aaron wanted to use was 'sexy,' but he felt uncomfortable talking that way about his girlfriend around Jazz. "I mean, I guess it _is_ a bit embarrassing to see her wearing them up on stage."

"Exactly!" Riko exclaimed, delighted that her thoughts were shared by Aaron. "Why don't you tell her that?"

"Because." Aaron looked down at the floor and shifted his feet around the legs of his stool. "I don't wanna make her feel bad or anything."

"Oh, come on!" Riko reacted incredulously. "You've been with her forever; you should be able to confront her about stuff like that."

"Hey, you of all people should know how mad she gets over this kind of stuff," Aaron countered.

"Yeah, but that's with me; she's not as prone to petty arguments with you. At least, I _hope_ she doesn't constantly argue with you when you two are alone."

"She doesn't, but…" Aaron sighed. "She just really likes those outfits. They're pretty expensive, you know, and she has to special order them from some website."

"Surely she doesn't only wear them while on stage." Jazz surmised.

"No, she wears them other times, too."

"Then it's not like she's losing her investment if we tell her not to wear them on stage," Riko stated. "I don't care when she wears them on her own time—I mean, I _do_ , but not as much."

"Yeah, but—"

"Listen," Riko interrupted him, "she might love those outfits, but I bet she loves you more. You've got nothing to worry about, whether you succeed in convincing her or not."

Aaron groaned. "Fine, I'll think about it."

Riko smiled in relief. "Thank you. It's worth a shot, right?"

A high-pitched beep sounded from the kitchen and caught their attention.

"Oh, the rice is ready," Riko announced. She looked at Aaron. "I'm making takikomi gohan. Want some?"

"Sure." Aaron knew he'd have to be an idiot to pass up Riko's cooking.

She clapped her hands together. "Well, I think that's enough progress for today; let's go eat."

All three of them made their way towards the kitchen, and thus informally ended the day's writing session.


	7. Start Slowly

**Chapter 7 – Start Slowly**

Kon had spent a few hours at Garam's house, and by the time he left to visit Clutch the sun was already setting. He had to take another train to get to Clutch's apartment building, at which point he was forced to walk the rest of the way in the dark of night. Gum was naturally understanding when he called her on his walk to say that he'll be coming home later than expected.

He eventually arrived at Clutch's apartment building and went inside. To his immediate right was an intercom and button board with the names of all the apartment residents listed on it. He found Clutch's real name—Ashi—in the list and pressed the button next to it. After a short wait, a voice came over the intercom.

"Who's there?"

Ashi's voice sounded a lot rougher than it used to be, but Kon could still hear some familiarity in it.

"It's me, Kon."

"Oh shit! Come on up, man!"

The doors to the building's lobby unlocked. Kon noted Ashi's room number on the button board and stepped into the lobby. Ahead of him was an elevator that he took up to Ashi's floor. Once there, he strode down the hallway while scanning the walls for the correct room number until he found it at the very end of the hall. As if his presence was sensed, the door to the apartment opened right as he was about to knock on it and there was Ashi, standing right in front of him with a goofy grin on his face.

"Kon! How ya doin', man?"

The first thing that Kon noticed was the way Ashi looked; the white sleeveless shirt he was wearing left his new arm tattoos exposed, and his hair, while still a fierce shade of red, was now done in short thin dreads. The second thing that Kon noticed was the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke coming from Ashi's apartment—and Ashi himself.

"Hey Ashi," Kon greeted him. "I've been good. How about you?"

"Same. Come on in, dude. And hey, you can still call me Clutch if ya want."

Kon saw no reason to continue calling Ashi by his Rudie name. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him, the smell of cigarettes only growing more potent. He hated the smell, but for now he'd just have to endure.

"Sorry about the smell, man," Ashi said, sensing Kon's discomfort. He walked towards a window and opened it, futilely trying to waft the smell out with his hands before giving up. "Ah, this ain't doing anything."

Kon kicked his shoes off to the side of the entrance and moved towards the living room when he finally noticed the state of disarray it was in. Empty takeout containers were left out in the open and an assortment of junk littered the floor.

"Dude, this place is a mess," Kon remarked to Ashi as he approached his couch and brushed a small amount of cigarette ash off of it with his sleeve before sitting down. "Does your landlord not know about this?"

"Nah, he don't even have a clue, man," Ashi replied as he walked behind the couch and hopped over it, landing on the seat next to Kon. "I always clean the place before he checks up on me."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just keep the place clean _all_ the time?"

"Not for me, it wouldn't," Ashi replied as he rested both his arms on the back of the couch. "Better to live in the moment, you know?"

Kon shrugged half-heartedly. "I suppose. So, how've you been these past few years?"

"I've been great, man," an animated Ashi responded. "Just living life, doing what I wanna do. That's what it's all about."

"Yeah? Because Combo mentioned you getting into trouble with the law?"

Ashi's face pinched. "He told ya that?" He seemed annoyed, but he quickly shook it off and put on a relaxed appearance. "Well, yeah, I did. It's no big deal."

Kon gave him a worried look. "He said you lost your job though."

Ashi let out an exaggerated sigh. "Yeah, but who cares? I can get another one."

"You seem to have quite the laissez-faire attitude about this. Getting hired isn't that easy, especially with a criminal record."

"Man, what _didn't_ Combo tell you about me?" Ashi asked sarcastically. "Trust me, everything's fine. Hell, my landlord has known about my criminal record for years and even he doesn't give me shit about it. All he cares is that I pay my rent."

"But you _can't_ pay your rent if you don't have the money for it."

Ashi rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man. My rent's already overdue. It's fine as long as I pay him back eventually."

Kon quietly shook his head at Ashi. "Man, what kind of shit have you been getting into?"

"Nothing big," Ashi answered with a smug smirk on his face. "Just messing around. Sometimes I shoplift or deface public property."

"With spray paint?"

Ashi chuckled. "I use spray paint when I'm feeling generous."

Kon scoffed, "Man, you're still doing shit like that?"

"Yeah, it's fun."

Kon raised his voice. "None of that shit is fun!"

Ashi, unfazed by Kon's yelling, replied in a calm manner, "You sure thought it was fun back when we were Rudies."

"Yeah, back _then_ I did. We're adults now, and you should be acting like one. How do you expect to pay your bills if you keep getting fired because of your stupid antics? Or worse, what are you gonna do if they put you in jail?"

Ashi sat up straight and gave Kon a stern glare, his relaxed demeanor once again put on sudden pause. "Look," he said in a sharp tone that caused Kon to recoil faintly, "if you're just gonna bitch at me then you can leave. I invited you here because I wanted to see you again, but I don't need to take this shit from you."

Ashi's voice trailed off near the end of his outburst and he began coughing repeatedly into his hand. Each exhale sounded painful, but he eventually regained his composure and didn't make any remark about his coughing fit.

Still, his harsh coughing combined with his hoarse voice made Kon worry about him. Smoking alone wouldn't deteriorate his voice that severely in only ten years; there must have been something else that was contributing to it. Kon wanted to inquire about it but he feared antagonizing Ashi any further. Besides, he had more important matters to discuss. More important to him, at least.

"Alright, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about," Kon said. "Did you hear that the city is gonna tear down the Garage?"

Ashi calmed himself again and replied with genuine curiosity, "Seriously? No, I never heard about that. When?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's gonna happen pretty soon. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to help me stop the demolition plans."

Ashi jumped up in his seat and clapped his hands together. "Now you're speaking my language, Kon! Hell yeah, I'll help! What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. I thought about doing a petition, but Garam said that wouldn't work."

"No shit, man. A petition ain't gonna get anything done. If you want your voice to be heard, you gotta force people to hear it."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

Ashi snorted. "Isn't it obvious? We gotta riot in the streets, just like back in the day!"

Kon stared blankly at Ashi. "Are you serious? I'm not doing something like that!"

"Why the hell not? It worked the last time we did it."

"But this is a completely different situation. We were fighting for something meaningful back then. Protesting without a worthy cause won't get us support, it'll just get us arrested."

Ashi furrowed his brows. "Wait, if you don't think this is a worthy cause then why are you even talking about it?"

Kon was taken aback by the question. "N-No, I do think it's a worthy cause. It's just that… _other_ people don't think it's a worthy cause, you know?"

Ashi grew frustrated with Kon's deflections. "If that's true, then what chance do you even have of saving the Garage?"

Kon struggled to think of a response.

Ashi dismissively waved his hand at him. "Oh whatever, man. If you ain't gonna use my ideas, then come up with your own. I doubt they'll get anything done though." He chuckled sarcastically and suggested, "Why don't you write a formal letter to the governor then? I'm sure they'll read it once before throwing it into the trash."

Kon slumped back on the couch; he lost Ashi's support just as he thought he had secured it. Ashi seemed to only be interested in destructive methods of getting things done, and while Kon constantly told himself that he'd do anything to try and save the Garage, he just didn't think that a protest was the right choice. A petition still seemed like the safest bet.

Ashi shoved his hands into his pockets and took out a loose cigarette and lighter. He lit the cigarette between his lips and took a long drag off of it while putting the lighter back into his pocket. Kon stared at him expectantly.

"Uh, do you mind going over to the window if you're gonna smoke?" he politely asked.

Ashi pulled the cigarette out from his mouth and casually exhaled a mist of smoke without even looking at Kon.

"Yeah, I do."

* * *

Yoyo was playing a video game while lying in bed, the bedsheets covering the lower half of his body. He had been playing for hours, getting up only to grab food from the fridge or to go to the bathroom—he'd even been wearing his pyjamas all the way into the evening. The amount of time that had passed didn't dawn on him until he heard the front door open and a familiar voice call out into the house.

"I'm home!"

Still, Yoyo didn't budge from his cozy spot as Liz stepped into the bedroom sporting a purse over her shoulder. She placed her purse on their dresser and stared at her lethargic husband.

"What have you been doing all day?"

"Nothing," he replied, still focused on the game he was playing. "Just watched some anime and played some games."

Liz rolled her eyes. "Same as usual, then." She walked into their en-suite bathroom and closed the door while continuing to speak with Yoyo from the other side. "Did you even change out of your pyjamas this morning?" she asked him in a raised voice.

"No point in getting dressed if I'm not going anywhere," he said in return. "So, uhh, how was today's photo shoot?"

"It went well," Liz responded. "They took a ton of shots of us in different poses and sets, but the other guy was really quick on the uptake so we got them done earlier than they expected us to."

Yoyo paused his game. "What other guy?"

The sound of the toilet flushing came from the bathroom and was followed by Liz's answer, "The guy I was posing with."

Yoyo put his game controller down and sat up straight, kicking the bedsheets off of him. "Have you ever worked with that guy before?"

Liz shouted over the sound of running faucet water as she washed her hands, "No, this was the first time I've ever met him. He was a really nice guy, and they're a bit rare to come by in this business."

Yoyo waited until Liz turned off the faucet before asking her another question. "Do you think you'll work with him again?"

"It's possible. I don't get to pick who I work with directly." She finished drying her hands and walked out of the bathroom, stopping in front of the bed to gaze directly into Yoyo's eyes. "Hun, I answered all of your questions honestly, but I wish you'd stop getting so upset every time I do a photo shoot with a man."

"What makes you think I'm upset?"

"Because you keep interrogating me every time it happens!" Liz walked around the bed to get closer to Yoyo, never losing eye contact with him, and softly rested her hand on his leg. "Is it because you're jealous? You know I'm not attracted to them like I am to you."

Yoyo looked down at his round stomach. "Come on, I've gained a lot of weight since we got married."

"Well, you _have_ let yourself go a bit, but I still love you just the way you are. Don't ever think the opposite."

"Whatever you say," Yoyo muttered.

Liz took a step back. "What? You don't believe me?"

"N-No, I believe you! A-And I'm not jealous of those other guys!"

Liz sighed deeply. "Okay then. Umm… I'm gonna go take a shower."

The moment Liz's eyes turned away from Yoyo, he realized how much he messed up. He sat there, too ashamed to look at her, as she walked back into the bathroom and gently closed the door behind her.

Disheartened, Yoyo got out of bed and turned his game off. He moped into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of milk from the fridge. With the glass in his hand, he leaned against the kitchen counter and ruminated on his flaws.

It wasn't like his inadequacies weren't as clear as day: he'd gained weight, didn't have a job, and spent most of his days lazily in bed. His flaws were only emphasized when contrasted with the attractive men that Liz worked with all the time. He figured that Liz was just hiding her disappointment in him, but eventually she would cave and finally leave him. Yoyo felt sick just thinking of the possibility. He knew he'd have to change before he lost her forever.

* * *

Aaron was lying on his bed, flipping mindlessly through TV channels. He payed no attention to Kat who was next to him, dressing up in her new Lolita dress for the first time. Once she put it on—including the many small accessories that went along with it—she stood in front of their floor mirror and inspected herself from every angle.

"All ready for the show tomorrow," she said to herself with a smile. "With my face and hair done up, I'll look perfect."

She turned around and looked at Aaron who was still focused on finding something good to watch on TV.

"Hey babe, how do I look?" she asked him.

Aaron finally looked away from the TV screen and was surprised by how good she looked. She was wearing a frilly pink dress with a white blouse underneath, a far cry from the darker-coloured dresses she usually wore. He may have even preferred the cuter colours.

"Damn," he replied with an aroused grin, "that outfit's pretty hot on you."

Kat giggled and spun around, the frills of her dress flying upward before gently floating down. She begun playing air guitar in front of the bed as if she was performing on stage, focusing her eyes on the imaginary frets while she hopped around the room.

Aaron laughed. "Having fun there?"

Kat stopped playing around and stared intently into Aaron's eyes. Her alluring stare bore deep into his head.

He suddenly remembered his promise to Riko earlier that day, but how could he confront Kat about her Lolita outfits after the amazing private performance he was just given? She seemed to be having fun playing dress up, and maybe having fun was more important than looking cool on stage. He was starting to like her outfits a bit more, too; her new outfit in particular was exciting him more than he expected it to.

As if she could tell how much she was affecting him, Kat crawled onto the bed on her hands and knees, her eyes still locked onto his.

Aaron's heart began beating faster as he was hypnotized by her gaze. "God, you sure know how to work me."

Kat grinned. She reached for the remote and turned the TV off before crawling on top of Aaron. Aaron felt his body sink into the bed from their combined weight. Kat looked down at him and spoke seductively, "Just because _I'm_ all dressed up doesn't mean _you_ have to be."

Aaron smirked and pulled his shirt off over his head. He could feel the frills of Kat's dress rub against his lower chest, which made him hesitate for a moment. "Wait, we don't want to ruin your dress."

"We won't," she assured him. "And I'd rather ruin the dress than ruin this moment."

Kat lowered herself further onto Aaron until they could both feel the warmth of each other's breaths. She gently placed her hand onto his upper chest and gradually crept it down the length of his abdomen. The sensation sent quivers down the back of his spine, something Kat was all too good at doing.

Kat enjoyed playing with Aaron, but soon he couldn't resist her any longer. He abruptly pulled her closer to him, causing a small yelp to escape from her lips. She giggled excitedly, taking the sudden gesture as a signal to get on with it, and the two wrapped their arms around each other and began their lovemaking.


	8. Remanifestation

**Chapter 8 – Remanifestation**

Aaron waddled towards his apartment complex with three bags of groceries in his arms. Parked in front of the building was Riko's car; she must have come early to meet with him and Kat before their live show. He climbed up the steps to his apartment and fumbled getting his keys out of his pocket. It was proving to be difficult with his arms full, so he tried turning his door's handle without his keys. Luckily for him, it was already unlocked.

He stepped inside and was greeted by Kat and Riko who were sitting on the couch together.

Riko smiled as he walked in. "Hey Aaron."

"Need help with the groceries?" Kat asked him.

"Nah, I've got it." Aaron kicked off his shoes and carried the bags to the kitchen. "By the way, Kon messaged me earlier and said that he won't be able to make it to the show. His boss is making him work late."

"Oh, that sucks," Kat responded. "Will Gum still be there?"

"I think so," Aaron replied while he began putting the groceries away. "Kon didn't say that she wouldn't be going."

Kat tilted her head. "I guess we'll see then."

"So anyway," Riko said to Kat, continuing the conversation they were having before, "I've already written two new songs for our next album. I'll play you them tomorrow, but I'm warning you now that they're a bit different from what we usually do."

"How different are we talking?" Kat inquired.

Riko smiled self-consciously. "Well, it's a bit less punk rock and a bit more... I'm not sure how to describe it."

"Avant-garde?" Aaron joked from the other room.

It got a snicker out of Kat, but Riko took his quip seriously.

"Kinda," she said, "but I think it's pretty pretentious to label yourself as avant-garde."

Kat furrowed her eyebrows. "They'd better not be too far out there. I don't want us to mess with the style that we've got down."

"That _I_ got down, you mean," Riko asserted. "I'm the one who writes most of our songs. I can switch things up if I want to."

"Yeah, but we're still a band; we should all have input on the things we put out."

"Why? So you can reject the songs that you don't like? What are we gonna do if you reject them all or we can't fill up an entire album? Are you gonna write your own songs?"

"Oh come on, that's not gonna happen," Kat assured her. "When have I ever outright rejected one of your songs?"

"You just said that you don't want me to mess with our style. Well, I'm our principal songwriter so I think that I should have complete creative control on what we put out."

Kat threw up her hands in dispute. "How is that fair? You might be our songwriter but together we're a band."

Riko put her hands on her lap. "Then let's put it to a vote. I think that I should have complete creative control."

Kat crossed her arms. "Well I don't."

They both turned towards Aaron. He overheard their arguing and walked into the room.

"You're really gonna make me be the tiebreaker?" he moaned.

"Who else is gonna do it?" Kat asked him sarcastically.

Aaron was in a bind. He himself had little interest in contributing to the song writing process; Riko was more than capable of handling that on her own. Choosing to relinquish all of their artistic rights to Riko seemed like a drastic option though, and Kat certainly wouldn't be happy with him if he agreed with it. And yet, this new direction that Riko was supposedly taking with her song writing had him curious. He was interested in seeing where she would take herself artistically, but at what cost?

Aaron sighed. "You know, Riko does have a point. She writes all our songs and we probably shouldn't get in the way of that. I trust her to do the right thing."

Kat slammed her hands down onto the coffee table. "What the hell, Aaron? I guess I can't trust _you_ to do the right thing."

Aaron's heart sank. He began to regret his decision, but when he looked over at Riko and saw the smug look on her face he became more hopeful; there was no way she would let him down.

"Calm down," Riko told Kat. "Anyway, that settles it. Jazz and I are gonna write what we want and if you don't like it, tough."

"Oh, so now Jazz gets more of a say in our music than me and Aaron do?" Kat complained.

"She's my collaborator," Riko explained. "I wouldn't have been able to write those two songs without her help, and she's the one who encouraged me to take the next album in a different direction."

"So this is _her_ fault then."

"Come on, babe," Aaron leveled with Kat, "be reasonable. I'm sure Jazz will do a great job."

"Well of course _you_ think that," she argued. "You're the one who introduced her to Riko."

Riko looked at Aaron. "And I'm so glad you did. Just chatting with her really gets my creative juices flowing. She has a mindset that's taught me to think differently about a lot of things. Plus, we have great chemistry together."

"Hey, are we making a Rapid 99 album or a Riko and Jazz album?" Kat caustically accused her.

"Why can't you just trust me? You're worrying over nothing. Even Aaron thinks so." Riko stood up from the couch and grabbed her keys from atop the coffee table. "Anyway, I'm gonna go pick up Jazz and bring her here so that we can all go to the venue together."

Kat looked away from Riko and responded apathetically, "Alright."

Riko walked past Aaron and gave him a quick side glance before leaving out the front door. He couldn't tell if she really appreciated that he had her back, but right now wasn't the time to be worrying about that; he had to calm Kat down and ensure that she didn't detest him for siding with Riko.

He sat down next to her and put his arms around her shoulders. "You don't hate me, do you?"

She shook her head and calmly asked him, "Do you really think that the direction Riko is going in is a good one?"

"Yeah, I do. I haven't heard any of the new songs yet, but Riko's attitude about them is kinda exciting."

"Why? What was wrong with our current style?"

"Nothing, but I think Riko wants to grow as an artist and we should support her in that."

"I guess, but I'm just worried that our next album will disappoint our fans."

"You should have more faith in Riko. She hasn't let our fans down yet."

"But don't you think that she should have more faith in _us_? She didn't have to completely take away our ability to give input into our band's own songs."

"I just think she's worried about the criticism you might give her."

"And what's wrong with giving criticism?"

"Nothing, but it might discourage her from doing her own thing."

"She's tough enough to handle constructive criticism, especially from us."

"Yeah, but—"

"Aaron," Kat interrupted him while staring into his eyes, "It honestly sounds like you're making up a bunch of excuses for her."

"I'm not, it's just that…" Aaron's voice trailed off as he struggled for words.

Kat sighed. "Whatever. I'm gonna go out for a smoke."

She moved Aaron's arms from around her shoulders and stood up, grabbing her cigarettes and lighter from the coffee table. Aaron watched somberly as she walked out to the balcony. Just as she was about to close the screen door behind her, she peeked her head back into the room.

"Oh, thanks for getting the groceries."

Aaron nodded and smiled weakly as she closed the screen door. He continued to watch her through the glass as she leaned against the balcony railing and lit a cigarette in between her lips. She held it there with her eyes closed, inhaling for some time before blowing the smoke out of her mouth and nostrils.

His confidence totally shattered, Aaron rested his head on the backrest of the couch and stared vacantly at the ceiling.

* * *

Kodi sat alone at a table in his office's break room, eating a bento box he had bought from the cafeteria. He almost always sat by himself, eating the same bento each day. A group at another table were chatting and laughing while eating their lunches, but Kodi paid them no mind. He was more focused on the radio that was playing at a low volume over the speakers. The song being played was by a famous pop idol group whom Kodi would never openly admit he was a fan of.

He held his last piece of bento tamagoyaki—an omelette rolled up into small cylindrical pieces—in his chopsticks and was about to put it in his mouth when someone walked up to his table and sat down across from him. To his annoyance, it was Kon.

"Hey Kodi, can I ask you something?"

Kodi put his chopsticks down. "What is it?" he grumbled.

Kon pulled out a piece of paper from his laptop bag and a pen. He placed them both on the table.

"I wrote out this petition to save the Garage and I was wondering if you could add your name to it."

Kodi looked down at the petition and skimmed through it. "The Garage? I already told you I wasn't interested."

"But all I'm asking for is a simple signature," Kon urged him.

Kodi pushed the petition away from him. "I don't care. You're just wasting both our time."

"But I tracked down most of the other GGs and nearly all of them agreed to help out."

Kodi glared at Kon. "Did you only track them down so they could sign your stupid piece of paper?"

"It's not stupid," Kon responded sharply. "And no, I didn't. I'm gonna keep in touch with all of them from now on."

"Yeah, right," Kodi replied sarcastically. "You're probably just gonna forget about them after a few weeks."

"No I won't. They're still my friends."

"Bullshit." Kodi stretched his arms out to the side. "We've both been working at the same company for years and you _never_ chat with me or ask to hang out, unless you're asking for a dumb favour."

Kon sat up straight. "Hey, I don't talk with anyone else here, either. I barely even know half of my coworkers."

"But you know _me_ ," Kodi hissed as he poked his thumb into his chest, "just like you know the rest of the GGs. You say you've been hunting them all down so you can reconnect with them, huh? Well, I've been right here for the past two goddamn years. Where have _you_ been?"

Kodi's seething eyes bore into Kon's. Buried beneath all his anger, Kon could tell that he was deeply hurt.

Kon looked down at his hands, too ashamed to stare directly at Kodi any longer. "I didn't know you cared that much."

Kodi stood up from his seat. "Yeah, there's a lot you don't know about me."

He stormed out of the break room while the group at the other table, having noticed the tension between him and Kon, looked over at them. Kon slumped in his chair as he stared at the unfinished bento box left on the table.

* * *

The spotlights pierced the gloom of the packed club and shone directly onto the stage as Aaron, Kat, and Riko were in the middle of playing one of their songs. Aaron banged at his drums behind Kat and Riko who were leading at the front of the stage with their guitars. As expected, Kat wore her cutesy Lolita outfit and commanded the crowd with her expressive stage moves and all-around fun demeanor.

Aaron crashed his cymbals at the finale of the song and the crowd began to applaud them. Kat stepped up to her microphone and gleefully thanked the audience.

Drenched in sweat, Aaron reached for his bottle of water at the foot of his drums and took a swig. He peered into the hazy throng of people and spotted Gum and Jazz standing next to each other near the front row. Gum was holding her phone up as if she was recording the show, or perhaps just taking a picture. Jazz on the other hand didn't look like she was enjoying the show that much. Aaron figured that punk rock wasn't to her taste.

The band all looked to each other to acknowledge that they were ready for the next song. Kat stepped up to her microphone again with another opportunity to play to the crowd.

"I think you guys are really gonna like this next one. I know _I_ do."

Riko counted them off and started playing the intro bassline to their next song. Aaron then entered with a simple drum beat, followed by Kat with an electric melody on her guitar. Slowly, the song swelled into a harsh attack of metallic shredding as Riko sang with intense emotion.

As Aaron played, he looked up at the two women standing in front of him. On one side was Kat, whose jolly stage antics were hard not to notice. On the other side was Riko, who stood still and focused only on her strumming and singing. And yet, she conveyed so much emotion in every little movement she made. Her face tensed with every passionate yell and her quick fingers generated heat as she slid them up and down her guitar's fretboard. Aaron couldn't help but be sucked in by her soulful charms.

As they reached the end of the song, it dawned on Aaron that he had been staring at Riko for most its length. Thankfully, due to having played the song hundreds of times before, he was still able to keep his cool and drum without any slipups.

Riko held a long note while Kat strummed the final chord of the song. The audience began to clap as Riko breathed heavily with exhaustion. She grabbed her bottle of water and began drinking from it, sweat trickling down her face. Aaron continued to stare at her, transfixed by her rugged beauty. It was then that he realized what was happening.

 _Oh god, I'm falling for her again._

He felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. The feelings he once had for Riko—the ones he thought he'd overcome—had come bubbling back up. Despite being with Kat for so many years, his love for her wasn't able to overpower his similar feelings for Riko. It sickened him to come to this realization at the same time that Kat shouted jubilantly to the audience.

"Thank you very much, everyone!"

At the end of their hour-long set, the band met in the venue's dingy green room. Aaron's compulsive feelings for Riko hadn't wavered one bit, and in fact only grew stronger now that they were chatting casually with each other.

The group were beginning to pack up their equipment when Jazz came in to join them.

"Hello gang," she said as she peaked her head through the door and entered the room.

"Hey," Aaron replied. "Where's Gum?"

"Oh, she went to the bathroom. I told her to meet us backstage when she's done."

"So, what did you think?" Riko asked her.

"It was… good," Jazz answered sheepishly. "If I may be frank, that type of music isn't really for me, but you all put on a great show."

"Thanks," Kat replied backhandedly.

Jazz side-eyed Kat's frilly dress which Riko took notice of.

"Still think the dress was a good idea?" Riko snidely asked Kat with her hands on her hips.

Kat lifted the frills of her dress and shook them around a bit. "Yeah. It held up pretty well and the fans sure liked it."

Riko rolled her eyes. "Ugh, of course they did. They always go crazy over girls in Lolita outfits."

Kat turned her back to Riko and began packing up her guitar into its case. "Don't start this argument with me again."

Aaron bit his lip, his eyes darting back and forth between Kat and Riko. He knew that a fight would break out between them shortly, and him and Jazz would be caught in the middle of it.

Riko ignored Kat's request and responded sharply, "I just think you should stop pandering to the horny guys in our audience and dress normally."

"I can wear whatever the hell I want!" Kat snapped. "Or are you gonna take wardrobe-picking rights away from us next?"

Riko rubbed her forehead. "God, but it's so embarrassing! I want my music to be taken seriously but it's pretty hard when you go up on stage dressed like _that_."

Kat slammed her guitar case shut and turned to face Riko. "Oh, so it's _your_ music, huh? As if Aaron and I don't bust our asses to learn every song and put on a good show for our fans! Are we just puppets to you? Forced to follow your orders so that everything is the way _you_ like it?"

"Kat, just—"

"No, screw you!"

Kat grabbed her cigarettes and lighter and left through the alleyway exit. Aaron quickly followed after her.

"Babe, wait!"

The door slowly closed behind them, leaving a vacuum of dead air in the room as it creaked shut. Jazz looked at Riko in clear discomfort.

Kat walked down the dark alleyway, with Aaron not far behind her, and lit a cigarette in between her lips. She stopped and leaned against the building, directly underneath a flickering lamp. The frills of her dress rippled in the cool nighttime breeze.

She took a quick puff before turning towards Aaron. "Riko's always bitching at me over the stupidest shit," she said bitterly. "Like, is she seriously not over the whole dress thing?" She took another quick drag. "This is your fault, you know."

"How is it my fault?"

"Because you've been feeding her ego. She probably thinks she's some kind of savant now thanks to you."

Aaron looked down at the pavement. "You know… I agree with her. About the dress, I mean."

Kat looked at him with mouth slightly agape. "What?"

"I like the dresses, but I just think they look out of place when we're up on stage."

"Whose side are you on, babe?" she huffed.

"I'm allowed to disagree with you on some things."

"Yeah, but lately you've been disagreeing with me on everything! And you really screwed us over by giving Riko carte blanche with all band matters. Of course, I'm the only one getting treated like shit because of it."

Aaron felt too ashamed to say anything.

Kat took a long drag of her cigarette and exhaled. "I'm not changing how I dress. I'll relinquish the rest of my band privileges, but just let me have this one thing."

The two stopped exchanging words and lingered in cold silence. Aaron leaned against the wall across from Kat and shoved his hands into his pockets.

He looked down the alleyway towards the street as a few cars passed by. If someone peered into the alleyway, he wondered, how would they react? A woman in a Lolita outfit smoking in a dimly-lit alleyway wasn't exactly a normal sight. Would they see her as a regular—albeit elegantly dressed—person taking a smoke break or as a hostess seeking customers? Would they think the man standing in front of her was her boyfriend or a pervert seeking her services?

Aaron questioned whether he himself would see them as a couple if he were an outsider looking in. He still loved her—and he was sure she still loved him—but lately their behaviour towards each other had been more hostile than affectionate, save for the moment of spontaneous intimacy they shared the night before. They had been together for ten years, and yet never before had they felt so far apart.

Aaron looked up and stared at the empty sky. Not a single star was in sight.


	9. Bloom

**Chapter 9 – Bloom**

Aaron's eyes slowly fluttered open as he turned over in his bed, staring at the ceiling above. The daylight from the window shone into the bedroom and illuminated the now-empty spot where Kat had slept next to him—she always awoke much earlier in the day than him. He looked at the clock on his nightstand; over an hour past noon, much later than the usual time he slept in until. The night prior was rough for him, filled with restless stirring and rumination. His feelings for Riko disturbed him to the point that he had a hard time falling asleep, and he certainly didn't feel any better with the new day's arrival.

He heard laughter coming from the other room. It sounded like Riko and Jazz had come over and were chatting with Kat. They seemed to be in good spirits, as if they made amends after yesterday's awkward incident at the club. Kat and Riko were always quick to make up, even after their worst arguments. What a weird relationship those two had.

Aaron didn't feel like getting up and facing them now. He grabbed Kat's pillow and covered his face with it, letting out a muffled moan into the cushion. Maybe he could stay in bed until Riko and Jazz left.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Were they expecting even more company? He heard footsteps and the sound of the front door opening.

"Oh, hey Kon!" Aaron overheard Kat say from the other room. "It's been a while."

Aaron quickly sat up. What was Kon doing here? Aaron had given him the address to their apartment a few days ago, but he didn't recall them planning a visit. He grabbed his phone from his nightstand and checked for missed calls or messages from Kon, but there were none. Why would he visit them unannounced?

Aaron jumped out of bed and, still in his pyjamas, walked out into the living room where the others were. Riko and Jazz were sitting next to each other on the couch while Kat was letting Kon into the apartment. She approached Aaron with an impish smile and tousled his messy hair.

"It's about time you woke up, babe."

She sat back down next to Riko as Aaron tidied his hair a bit with his hands. He was already caught wearing his pyjamas well into the afternoon so there was no point in making himself look good.

He turned towards Kon. "Hey man, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to come by for a quick visit before I head off to work," Kon replied, gripping the shoulder strap for his messenger bag. "Sorry I missed yesterday's show by the way. My boss made me work overtime out of nowhere."

"It's fine, no need to apologize." Aaron turned to look at the others. He didn't pay attention to their conversation when he was lying in bed, but he assumed there was eventually going to be a discussion about their music. "We're kinda having a band meeting right now, but you can still hang out with us."

"Yeah, and finally our drummer decided to join us," Kat quipped with a playful smirk at Aaron.

Aaron responded with a knowing glance. He pulled up two folding chairs for him and Kon and they both sat down around the coffee table. Kon put his messenger bag down at the foot of his chair.

"It's good to see you again," Riko said to Kon. "I wish you could have made it to our show last night."

"Yeah, Gum told me all about it," he replied.

"Does your boss always force you to work overtime on, like, _no_ notice?" Aaron asked him.

"It's happening more frequently for sure," Kon wearily divulged, "but we're working on a pretty important project right now so I guess it's to be expected. Crunch time, you know?"

"It's still pretty shitty that your company puts you through that," Riko remarked.

Kon sighed. "Yeah, but what can you do?"

"Complain, make it an issue, or something."

"I'd rather not risk my job. Other than the sudden overtime, I actually like it."

Riko shrugged her shoulders. "Well hey, while your here I should play everyone this new song Jazz and I have been working on."

"Sure, that'd be cool," Kon said.

Kat responded with intrigue, "I'd also like to hear what you guys came up with."

Riko stood up and grabbed the acoustic guitar displayed in the corner of the room. She exchanged seats with Aaron to give herself more elbow room and began noodling on the guitar to warm up.

"I'm gonna keep it short. I don't want the neighbours complaining to us again."

She started strumming a simple moody tune that quickly introduced deceptively complex chord changes. Her eyes were focused on her strumming, and once she reached the song's first verse she began to recite the lyrics.

" _Give your heart to the heartland, the emperor rules  
But this bruised heart can't give much more  
If they mean to deceive, I won't sit here and grieve  
I'll just make my way out the door  
It seems the older I get, the better things were  
I think back to days now long gone  
But the past isn't past and this iconoclast  
Won't undo the progress that's been done"_

Her voice began to quaver—an intentional effect she often gave her singing to deliver more emotion—and her strumming grew more aggressive as she entered the song's chorus.

 _"What crueler punishment in my eyes_  
 _Than to be told to relinquish the prize_  
 _By men who elect to demean_  
 _Who see me as a…"_

Riko stopped strumming as she struggled to recall the words of the chorus.

"A libertine," Jazz finished the line for her.

"Right, right." Riko turned to Kon. "Well anyway, that's the gist of it. What do you think?"

Kon's response wasn't immediate. Just like the others, he was left a bit perplexed by the song's flowery words. Even Aaron, Riko's chief supporter, found the lyrics unnecessarily ambiguous. All he could make out was a vague antiestablishment message. The group wisely avoided showing their confusion on their faces.

"It's pretty good," Kon responded with a well-meaning nod. "What's it about?"

"That's what I want to know," Kat interjected as she looked towards Riko. "I thought you said you wanted to write songs about Tokyo and Japan."

"I do," Riko replied. "I'll have other songs that expand on that theme."

"If you say so." Kat reclined in her seat. "I mean, I'm not complaining, it's just that the whole Tokyo theme was _your_ idea."

"Nothing's been set in stone just yet," Jazz elucidated. "Riko has already made a few reversals on what course the album will take. My job is just to spark some ideas in her head and hopefully write the right words to evoke those ideas."

"It's not like the album _needs_ a central theme," Kat proposed. "It can just be a collection of songs like our other albums are."

"I told you I'm sticking with the Tokyo theme," Riko repeated herself to Kat, this time more adamantly. "The song I played you guys will fit the theme just fine. Just wait for everything to come together."

"Well, I like it all so far," Aaron chimed in with a reassuring smile.

His basic encouragement seemed to lift Riko's spirits a bit. Satisfied with ending the discussion there, she quickly changed the subject to something else.

"Anyway, I've been thinking about what I want the album's cover to look like. All our older album covers are just pictures of us posing and stuff, but I want this next one to be different. I want it to have art that conveys what the music is about, you know?"

Kat lit up. "I actually like that idea," she said with enthusiasm. "It would help the album pop out a bit more, that's for sure."

"Sounds good to me," Aaron concurred. "What do you want the cover art to look like?"

"That's up to the artist to discover," Riko replied. "I just want to chat with them for a bit, explain what the album is going for, and see what they come up with."

Kon suddenly perked up in his seat. "Hey, Gum's a graphic designer," he mentioned to the group. "Maybe you guys could get her to do the artwork."

Aaron turned towards Kon, dumbfounded that such an obvious solution had completely slipped his mind. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot that she's an artist! Man, that'd be cool if she did the art for us!"

"Well, how good is she?" Riko asked Kon. "I'll need to see some examples of her work before I can sign her on to the project."

"No problem," Kon replied, doing a decent job of containing his excitement. "I'll send Aaron some pictures of her work when I get home."

Kat nudged Aaron with her hand and asked him sarcastically, "Got any more friends who can help us with this album?"

Aaron smirked. "Let me know if you need a fashion model or a professional wrestler."

"Not unless any of them can play an instrument," Riko joked. "Speaking of which, I booked some time next week at a recording studio. Hopefully we can crank out a few good takes."

"Isn't it a bit early to be heading into the studio?" Kat griped.

"Yeah, but it'll show the record company that we're making progress on the new album. I want them off our asses."

Kat snorted. "Good thinking."

While the others were talking, Kon leaned down and rummaged through his messenger bag. He pulled out a piece of paper and pen.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you could do me a favour," he said as he clicked his pen.

The others turned to look at him. He held out the piece of paper in front of them. It looked like some sort of document with two signatures on it.

"I started a petition to save the Garage from being demolished," he explained to them. "I haven't gotten much support yet, but I'm hoping you guys can add your signatures to it."

Aaron grabbed the petition and skimmed through it. He didn't know that Kon was this determined to save the Garage. Did he actually think that a petition would work? To Aaron it seemed like a hopeless endeavor, but it would probably be rude if he didn't sign it anyway. Only Kon and Gum had signed it so far, which made perfect sense to him.

"Yeah, sure, I'll sign it," Aaron said as Kon handed him the pen. He signed his name on the petition, using the coffee table as a writing surface, and then slid the petition across the table towards the others. Kat was the first to grab the pen and add her signature.

"I guess it's worth a shot," she reckoned as she scribbled her name onto the piece of paper.

"I really appreciate it," Kon said with an thankful smile.

Kat slid the petition towards Jazz. She simply glared at it, not budging from her position with folded arms.

"You already know my thoughts on this," she told Kon.

Kon nodded slightly, then turned his expectant gaze towards Riko. Her eyes darted between everyone in the room.

"I mean, I don't really have an attachment to the place," she reasoned. "Shouldn't you be getting signatures from people who do?"

"If I do that, I'll never get enough signatures," Kon replied.

Riko and Jazz exchanged nervous looks.

"But then…" Riko paused in a moment of incredulity. "I mean, if only a few people even care about the Garage then how do you expect to get enough signatures?"

"I'll convince people to care," Kon answered. "Most people don't know about the Garage's history, but through me they'll learn why it's a special place that's worth preserving. You guys already know though, right?"

Kon placed his hand down on the petition and slid it closer to Riko. She rolled her eyes and reluctantly grabbed the pen.

"Alright, whatever, I'll sign it. I just can't believe that _this_ is the thing you're fighting for."

She half-heartedly added her signature to the petition before glancing at Jazz who still wouldn't budge.

"I've said my piece and that's all you'll get from me," Jazz said with a sneer.

"All I'm asking for is a simple signature," Kon reiterated with growing irritation. "Why are you being so…"

Kon cut himself off, perhaps realizing just a bit too late that he was unsettling everyone else. The room became quiet, and Aaron felt that he had to do something to dissolve the situation since he knew Kon better than any of the others.

"Well, I feel like an idiot sitting here in my PJs," Aaron said casually as he stood up from his seat. He ambled behind Kon's chair and patted him on the shoulder. "I'm gonna go get dressed, and then how about we both go out for a quick walk before you head off to work?"

"Yeah, sure," Kon overeagerly replied. It seemed like he was happy to be given an out from the awkward atmosphere he had created.

Aaron walked back into his bedroom and shut the door. Instantly he felt relieved to have removed himself from the uncomfortable situation that developed in the other room, but he didn't want to leave Kon alone with the others for too long. He pulled out a simple pair of pants and t-shirt from his dresser and scrambled to change into them. After putting on some socks and stuffing his essentials into his pocket like his wallet and phone, he quickly exited his room to rejoin the others. The petition was no longer on the coffee table and Kat had thankfully changed the subject of conversation to one of her and Riko's favourite TV shows.

"Kon, I'm ready," Aaron called to him from the front door. "Let's go."

Kon turned his head towards Aaron in acknowledgement and stood up from his chair. He grabbed his messenger bag by its strap and swung it over his shoulder while walking over to the door to put on his shoes.

"How long do you guys plan on being?" Kat asked them.

"We won't be too long," Aaron replied as he grabbed his jacket from the coat closet.

"Alright. It was good seeing you again, Kon," Kat said before returning to her conversation with Riko.

"Yeah. See ya, guys," Kon waved as he shut the door behind Aaron and him.

With Aaron's bandmates now safely out of the picture, Aaron and Kon calmly walked down the apartment walkway. It was a brisk sunny day with only a slight breeze in the air.

"So, when do you have to go to work?" Aaron asked Kon.

Kon checked his wristwatch. "I've gotta be there in about an hour, so we should probably keep this walk short."

"Yeah, sure. I just wanted to chill with you for a bit."

Aaron shoved his hands into his coat pockets as they descended the steps of the apartment complex to the street below. They strolled along the sidewalk, heading in the direction of the nearest subway station.

"Something tells me I pissed Riko off," Kon mentioned once they were no longer on the apartment complex premises. "I think I pushed her too hard to sign my petition when she clearly wasn't interested."

"Dude, it's no big deal," Aaron assured him.

"I'm just worried that I ruined the chances of her hiring Gum to do the artwork for your next album."

"By tomorrow she won't even give a shit, trust me. She gets into huge fights with Kat all the time—the kind of fights that make you think their friendship is over—but they always forgive and forget."

"Really? Is that just part of her personality?"

"Yeah, she's cool. I guess you never really knew her that well, even back when we were Rudies."

"Not really, no. She seems to be really passionate about her music, though."

"Oh, she's in love with music," Aaron effused with genuine enthusiasm. "That's what I admire about her: her ambition to keep progressing as an artist. She's really putting a lot of effort into this next album."

"Kat seems a bit less enthusiastic though," Kon observed.

Aaron scrunched his mouth to the side. "I think she has her doubts about the project, but she'll come around eventually. I mean, we depend on Riko to write, produce, and play our music so it's not like we have a choice other than to let her do her thing."

"Why don't you and Kat contribute more?"

"Honestly, I just don't have the same kind of talent for that stuff that Riko does. Maybe that's me being overly humble though. Kat tried her hand at song writing a few times actually, but Riko always ended up reworking the songs a bit before we recorded them."

"Did that bother Kat?"

"A little, but our albums generally do well so she doesn't mind it too much."

Kon chuckled. "As long as you're making money, right?"

"No, it's not like that. Kat really comes alive on stage when she's playing for the fans, and she's a trooper in the studio when Riko is demanding perfection from everyone. She's just as dedicated to the band as Riko is. I think she's just worried that our next album might upset a bunch of our fans because of its different tone."

"That song snippet Riko played for us did sound a bit… unconventional," Kon said as politely as he possibly could. "But whatever, I hope everything works out and your next album turns out great."

"Same. Well, enough about all that. How's Gum doing?"

"Oh, she's doing alright. Always working on improving her art, just like Riko I guess. Once I show you her artwork you'll love it, I swear."

Aaron laughed. "I'm sure I will, man. Stop acting like a salesman and let her work speak for itself."

Kon hung his head. "Yeah, I know…"

Aaron nudged him with his elbow. "I get it though. I'll definitely vouch for her when I show her artwork to Riko."

Kon looked at Aaron and smiled warmly. "Thanks, man. This'll really mean a lot to her. To both of us."

Aaron stared up into the bright autumn sky. He contemplated if Gum and Kon had a relationship filled with doubts like his and Kat's had. Granted, all the doubts in his relationship were strictly coming from his side. No relationship was perfect, but it's far from normal to have strong feelings for another person ten years into what is otherwise a happy relationship.

Gum and Kon's relationship did have a minor setback ten years ago, back when the GGs first started—a setback that Aaron was awkwardly entangled in. The situation quickly resolved itself though and they'd been happily together ever since, or at least it seemed that way from the outside looking in. Aaron wondered if they'd had a few more hiccups since then. It wouldn't have been polite to ask Kon directly, but maybe there were other ways of extracting that information from him.

"You know," Aaron sheepishly muttered, "me and Kat have been going through a bit of rough patch recently."

Kon turned to face Aaron. "Why? What's going on?"

Aaron exhaled deeply. "I don't wanna get into it. It's just one of those things, you know? I'm sure you and Gum have gone through something similar."

"Sure," Kon replied, "it's something every relationship goes through at least once."

"Yeah? What was yours like?"

Kon brushed the question aside. "Oh, nothing worth mentioning. Just a bunch of petty arguments."

Of _course_ that was his response. Why would he needlessly elaborate on something as personal as that, even to a close friend like Aaron? Kon was never the type of person to bare his private life to others so easily.

Kon gave Aaron a heartfelt pat on the back. "But hey, you and Kat have been together for ten years. If you guys can last this long, you can weather anything that comes your way."

Aaron shook his head with a snicker. "Stuff like that is so easy to say."

Kon paused for a moment, lacking a rebuttal. He then stopped to check his watch.

"I think I should probably head off now," he said. "But this was nice. We should definitely just chill out together more often."

"For sure, man," Aaron replied. "Just hit me up beforehand next time so you don't catch me in my jammies."

Kon laughed. "Will do. Take it easy."

"You too," Aaron said with a smirk. "Don't let the boss work you too hard today."

They waved goodbye to each other before heading off in opposite directions, with Aaron sulking back towards his apartment. Kon's empty words didn't make him feel any better, but what did he expect; Kon had no idea how bad his situation really was.

* * *

Liz stepped out of her modeling agency's building while chatting with a taller male colleague. The cool evening wind quickly hit her, prompting her to button up her wool coat. The two giggled over a joke that they shared before parting ways for the day.

"Well, take care, Liz," the man said as he walked towards his car.

"You too," she responded, still grinning from their conversation.

She took a few more steps before she spotted Yoyo leaning against a building, staring at her and waving. Pleasantly surprised, she marched over to him.

"Hey Yoyo, what are you doing here?"

"I figured I'd pay you a visit after work," he answered.

Liz smiled. "Aw, that was nice of you. How long have you been waiting for me? You're lucky I didn't have to work late today."

Yoyo shrugged. "It's not like I had anything better to do today."

"Well, since we're both already out we might as well go somewhere together."

"Yeah, sure," Yoyo said as he looked over Liz's shoulder. "Hey, who was that guy you were just talking to?"

Liz turned around. "Oh, that was Suzuki. He's a work friend of mine."

"Really? What does he do?"

"He's one of the bookers. He basically finds jobs for all the models."

"Oh, so he's not actually a model then. That's good."

Liz glared at Yoyo. "What do you mean by that?"

Yoyo froze. "Oh, nothing. Come on, let's go out to eat or something."

Yoyo grabbed her arm but she pulled it away from him and put her hands on her hips.

"Yoyo, are you seriously still jealous of the guys at my work?" she asked him sternly.

"N-No, I'm not!" he stammered. "Stop saying that!"

Liz covered her eyes with her hand. "Oh god, is this the only reason you came to visit me at work? To scout out the men I work with?"

"No, I did it to be nice!" Yoyo swore to her. "I missed you and stuff."

"Yoyo, you're a terrible liar." Liz began to raise her voice. "Ugh, I'm allowed to be friends with other guys! Why do you always act this way?"

"I don't! We even met with Aaron and Kon last week and I didn't have a problem with that!"

"That was probably only because you knew they weren't single. Every other time, you always act so suspicious. I can't even talk to another guy without you asking questions!"

Liz looked around and noticed that other people were staring at them. Flustered, she stormed away with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Liz, wait!" Yoyo called out to her.

She ignored him, and he hung back and let her go.


	10. Public Appeal

**Chapter 10 – Public Appeal**

The door to Ashi's apartment opened and out stepped Kon, holding a clipboard on which his petition was attached. He impulsively took a deep breath as if the cigarette smoke that permeated Ashi's apartment had been suffocating him. Ashi followed behind him and leaned against the door frame with a lit cigarette still in his fingers.

"I'm telling you, that petition ain't gonna do shit," he said behind Kon's back in his raspy voice. "I'd tell you to wait and see but by then they'll have already paved the Garage into an empty lot."

Kon lowered his eyelids and gently shook his head before slowly turning to face Ashi. "I already heard the bright idea _you_ had in mind, but this is _my_ project. Let me do things my way."

Ashi snorted. "Man, you had me so pumped to help out at first, but if all you're doing is a stupid petition then you've lost me. If I could retract my signature I would, but either way that's the last thing you'll get out of me if this is the route you're taking."

"Well, so be it," Kon replied without a second thought.

Ashi took a drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke into Kon's face. "I guess the years have made you soft, huh?"

Kon clenched his firsts and casually snapped back, "You're mistaking maturity with mellowness. This is just what you become when you grow up."

Ashi appeared stunned for a brief second before he quickly shook off his surprise and scowled at Kon. "Hey, screw you!" he snarled. "I'm _twice_ the man you'll ever be! Now get the hell outta here!"

Ashi slammed the door shut in Kon's face, making him recoil back a few steps. He regained his composure and looked down at his clipboard. One more signature added to the petition. He made his way to the elevator and stepped inside.

While riding down, he wondered if he was approaching people all wrong; his meeting with Riko and Jazz the other day didn't go so smoothly either. In the end though, it didn't matter as long as he got the signatures he was looking for, and despite Ashi's reluctance he did come around to adding his own. Sometimes a little stubbornness is justified if its a means to an end, he thought.

The elevator doors opened on the ground floor. Kon stepped out of the apartment building and into the chill evening air where a short gust of wind blew through his hair. Knowing that the signatures of just his old gang wouldn't be enough, his next objective was to spread word of his petition around to the greater population in hopes of attracting support from all manner of people. He had already posted a blog post about it to all his social media pages, but a couple days passed without it gathering much attention. This only motivated him to try an old-fashioned method.

He sat his laptop bag down on the sidewalk and opened it up; inside were plenty of posters he made advertising his cause and a tape gun he 'borrowed' from his office. He grabbed the tape gun and swung his bag back over his shoulder so that it hung to his waist. As he walked the streets, he paused at every other telephone pole to pull out a poster and plaster it onto the pole.

As he was taping up his dozenth or so poster, an older man walked by and stopped to see what Kon was doing. He looked closely at the poster and began chuckling to himself.

Kon turned to face him, thinking that the man would be interested in learning more. "Hey, would you like to know more about my cause?"

The man waved both his hands and shook his head apologetically. "Oh, sorry. I have to go," he said before continuing on his way.

Kon stared as the man walked away. The man didn't even give him a change to explain himself. Maybe he needed to be more direct with people, he wondered. He looked ahead and spotted a group of people chatting out front of a cafe. He pulled out a stack of posters and approached the group.

"Hey, do you guys have a moment?" he interrupted.

The group paused their conversation and turned towards Kon. "Um, what's up?" a woman in the group with thick-framed glasses replied.

Kon held up one of his posters to the group. "There's this abandoned hotel complex in Shibuya that the city is planning to demolish as part of their big redevelopment project. I've written a petition to save the complex and I could use your support. Would any of you be willing to contribute your signature to the cause?"

The woman furrowed her brow. "What hotel are you talking about?"

"It was never opened to the public, but Rokkaku funded the construction of his luxury hotel near the heart of Tokyo over a decade ago. It's just been sitting there ever since."

The woman adjusted her glasses. "Oh, that one…"

"So, what's your proposal?" a burly man in the group asked Kon. "Did you want them to renovate it so that it can finally be used?"

"That would be one option the city could take, yes," Kon expounded. "Really, to me it's more about the historical significance of the site."

The man gave Kon a confused look. "What historical significance?"

"Well, the big protest that led to Rokkaku resigning was actually conceived at the hotel. A group of kids who always hung out there orchestrated the whole thing."

The man looked towards his friends. "Is that true?"

Another man in the group shrugged his shoulders. "I've never heard of it, so even if it _is_ true I'd hardly qualify that as historically significant."

"It was kept a secret because of how dangerous it would have been for those kids if the government back then found out," Kon explained to them. "Just because you haven't heard of something doesn't mean it isn't historically significant."

The woman put on a forced smile. "Well, good luck with your cause," she told Kon with what seemed like feigned kindness.

Kon held out his stack of posters to the group. "Uh… here, you guys can take a few. It has all the information you need if you want to think about it and contact me later. Take some extras to share with people."

"I think we're good," the burly man replied. "Take it easy, man."

And with that, the group turned their backs to Kon and continued their previous conversation. Just when he thought he had them, they gave him the most palpable rejection he could have received. Kon stood there awkwardly for a moment before moving on.

He shoved the posters back into his open bag. After that humiliation, he didn't have the confidence to approach strangers anymore. He decided he would just quietly put up more posters around town and hope for the best. Anyone who was interested would contact him using the information on the posters anyway.

Kon waited for a pack of cars to rush by before crossing the road. He'd only printed so many posters, so he had to be strategic in where he placed them.

 _Maybe after placing a few more around the popular spots in Shibuya I can head over to the Benten district and leave a few there_ , he thought.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew by, lifting the posters from Kon's open bag and scattering them around before he could catch them. He quickly raced to collect the posters from the ground, but the fierce breeze continued to carry them off spiraling through the air. After a feeble attempt at retrieving just a few, Kon stopped and watched defeatedly as the flurry of paper blew away from him.

Kon sighed deeply and looked down into his bag; only a few posters remained inside. He took them out and stared at them deeply before his hands began to tremble with frustration. With a loud yell he threw them into the air, but the swirling wind caused one to fly back into his face. He slowly pulled it off as if it was glued to his head and threw it to the ground.

Feeling as if nature itself had personally insulted him, Kon gave up and headed home.

* * *

Gum was rearranging her art workstation, getting rid of all the clutter and better organizing her tools. A drama show was playing on the TV in the background and a hot cup of coffee was sitting on the coffee table. She just finished removing the trash from her desk when she heard the front door open.

"Babe?" she called out.

"Yeah," Kon meekly replied as he closed the door behind him and dropped his coat and bag to the floor.

"Guess what?" Gum said excitedly as she walked to the entryway with a spring in her step, but she stopped abruptly when she noticed Kon's belongings spread on the floor of the entrance. "Something wrong?"

Kon sighed and stepped past Gum into the living room. "I put up a bunch of posters around Shibuya to promote the petition, but nobody's interested. Even the people I directly spoke with didn't give a shit."

Gum cleared Kon's bag and coat from the ground as he sat down on the living room couch.

"All I can really hope for," he continued, "is that some people see the posters and contact me in the next few days, but with the responses I got today that seems unlikely."

Gum sat down next to him and put her hand on his lap. "Babe, you've gotta admit that it's a bit of a tough sell. It was never gonna be easy to get people interested in saving some old abandoned building."

"The Garage was more than just an old abandoned building," Kon said.

"To us it was," Gum replied. "To everyone else, it was nothing more. Why do you think they're finally tearing it down?"

Kon grumbled, "Well _you_ don't seem too upset by it."

Gum leaned in closer to him. "I mean, yeah, it'll be a little sad to see it gone for good, but I've already made my peace with it. Maybe it's time that you do, too."

Kon stared silently at the wall for a few seconds before shaking his head. "I can't. I won't give up. There's still a chance."

Gum hung her head and let out a heavy sigh. "You already know I'm not gonna try to stop you."

Kon quickly stood up and fetched his bag. He opened it and pulled out his petition to count the signatures he had so far. He counted only six: himself, Gum, Aaron, Kat, Riko, and Ashi. Aside from Jazz and Cody who seemed like the only holdouts, he was confident that the other former GGs would lend their signatures. The only thing he was doubting was the effectiveness of the petition itself.

He walked back into the living room with petition in hand. "Do you think this petition thing could ever succeed?" he asked Gum.

Gum shrugged her shoulders. "I really don't know."

"Ashi suggested that we start a protest to drum up support," Kon mentioned, "but that sounds too crazy. Don't you think so?"

Gum snorted. "I'll tell you one thing: I'm fine with signing a petition, but you ain't getting me to march down the street holding a sign over my head."

Kon nodded in agreement. There was no way he would be able to convince the others to do that either, especially the ones who he could barely convince to sign his petition like Riko. The petition still seemed like his best bet, at least for now.

"Anyways," Gum interjected, "I've got some great news to share. Riko called me earlier and said that she wants me to do the artwork for her band's next album!"

Kon dropped his clipboard onto the coffee table as he beamed with glee. "Really? That's awesome!"

"I know!" Gum enthused. "I wasn't expecting such a quick reply from them but thank _god_ it didn't take long. It would have been hell if I had to wait even just a week for an answer." She stood up and held both of Kon's hands. "This could be my first big break, babe. I can finally get my work out there and noticed."

"Trust me, I know it," he replied, then gently placed a kiss on her lips. "So, what's the next step?"

"Well, Riko wants me to meet up with her sometime this week to discuss the details." Gum walked over to her workstation. "I'm already getting everything prepped up. It's seriously all I can think about."

Kon chuckled. "Maybe take it easy for the rest of the night."

"I've _been_ taking it easy, and for too long. I've gotta be one of the few people who's actually happy to have more work to do."

"Well, I've got more work I need to do too," Kon mentioned.

"Like what?" Gum asked.

Kon turned around and began walking towards the bedroom. "Just because I'm finished with the posters doesn't mean there isn't more to be done."

Kon couldn't see Gum rolling her eyes as he left the room, but he had something else occupying his mind. Amidst all his planning, there was one unknown he had yet to consider: Boogie. She was the only former GG member who Kon hadn't reunited with yet, and he had no leads as to where she could be.

Kon sat on his bed and flipped open his laptop. He knew he'd need to do some sleuthing to track her down.

* * *

The packed crowd at the wrestling event began to clear out after the end of the show, but their muffled sounds could still be heard in the arena's backstage area. There, Combo was shambling into the locker room while clutching his chest. He didn't recall taking any particularly nasty bumps during his earlier match, but it wasn't long after that he started feeling a tight pain in his upper torso. He grabbed an unopened water bottle from a pack and sat down at a bench. At this point, another masked wrestler walked in.

"Hey, good match today," the wrestler remarked.

"…Thanks…" Combo replied between deep breaths. He took a few swigs of water, then poured the rest down his back to cool himself off.

"You doin' alright?" the wrestler asked Combo while opening his locker.

"I dunno," he answered, still short of breath. "My chest is… killing me…"

"You should get a good rest tonight, man," the wrestler suggested. "Hopefully it's nothing serious."

"Damn, I hope not but… whatever it is… I don't usually get this kind of chest pain."

"Want me to call the staff over so they can take a look at it?" the wrestler offered.

Combo let out a pained groan. "I guess, 'cause this is… really…"

Before he could finish his sentence. Combo collapsed backwards off the bench and crashed to the ground. The masked wrestler quickly slammed his locker shut and ran up to Combo.

"Combo, you alright?" he shouted while kneeling over him. He jostled Combo's body, but it remained limp. "Can you hear me? _Shit._ "

The masked wrestler stood up and ran out of the locker room.

" _Hey!_ " he yelled out into the corridor. " _We need a paramedic here!_ "


End file.
